The far-right is celebrating after winning the most votes in an Austrian election for the first time since the Nazi era. Addressing supporters in Vienna, Freedom Party (FPO) leader Herbert Kickl said it was a "piece of history that we have written together." His pro-Kremlin, anti-Islam party, founded by former Nazis a decade after the end of World War II, won 29.2% of the votes in Sunday's election, beating the ruling center-right People's Party (OVP) with 26.5%. 

Turnout was high, with nearly 80% of eligible Austrians voting. The results "couldn't have been clearer," said Kickl. 

What did the commentators say? 
By "profiting from a right-wing surge in many parts of Europe and taking Hungary's Viktor Orbán as a model," the FPO has successfully "capitalized on fears around migration, asylum and crime," said The Guardian. These fears were "heightened by the August cancellation of three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna over an alleged Islamist terror plot." The party had already seen a "huge leap" in support since the last election, in 2019, amid "mounting inflation, tepid economic growth and lingering resentment over strict government measures during Covid." 

The FPO "downplays its Nazi past and seeks to portray itself as an anti-establishment alternative to the mainstream," said Politico, but it "regularly uses antisemitic, fascist tropes to stir its base." The party ran on an overtly "anti-foreigner platform" in this election, vowing to "erect a 'Fortress Austria' to keep out migrants." 

What next? 
The FPO fell short of an outright majority, so it will need coalition partners to govern. While most centrist parties have ruled out working with the far-right, the OVP hasn't dismissed the possibility of working together, "as it has twice in the past in taboo-breaking alliances at the national level," said The Guardian. However, Chancellor Karl Nehammer has made clear that Kickl taking over his role is a "nonstarter," setting up a "potential showdown in which the FPO would have to either jettison Kickl or take a backseat in government to win the OVP's support."

The Albanian prime minister plans to establish a microstate within the country's capital, Tirana. The enclave for the Bektashi Muslim minority would be "similar to the Vatican" and act as a "new center of moderation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence," Prime Minister Edi Rama said to the U.N. General Assembly in New York City last week. If the plan goes ahead, it will be the smallest sovereign state in the world. 

What's the Bektashi Order? 
The Bektashi population is Albania's fourth-largest religious group, after Sunni Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians. Established in the 13th century, the Bektashi Order combines a "loose interpretation of the Quran with mysticism, elements of Turkey's pre-Islamic faiths, and devotion to their deceased wise men, known as dervishes," said The New York Times. 

The movement was once spread throughout the Ottoman Empire, but when a secular Turkish Republic was established in 1923, the Bektashis moved their base to Tirana. It's from here that the sect's current leader, Edmond Brahimaj, known to followers as Baba Mondi, governs the Bektashi community. 

What are the prime minister's plans? 
The 27-acre proposed microstate covers the movement's existing compound in a residential district of eastern Tirana. Despite being only a quarter of the size of the Vatican City, it would have its own passports, administration and borders. Only clergy members and administrative staff would live within the microstate, according to AFP. 

Although members of the sect have been "subjected to centuries of persecution in Muslim lands," said The New York Times, the new Bektashi state "won't have an army, border guards or courts." But Baba Mondi has indicated that it "might need a small intelligence service." 

How has the plan been received? 
"As often happens in Albania, many experts and the public were completely in the dark about the details of the government's plan," said Deutsche Welle. "For most, the decision came entirely out of the blue." Baba Mondi called the initiative a "miracle," but others worry that giving a religious group statehood might disrupt sectarian relations in the country. The proposal — part of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network  — is "regarded by political analysts as strange and absurd," said Reporter.al.