What does far-right election victory mean for Austria?

The anti-migrant Freedom Party 'downplays its Nazi past' but has 'deep roots' in Austrian politics

Herbert Kickl, leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party
FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl said during the campaign that he would serve as Austrians' 'Volkskanzler', or 'people's chancellor', a term once used by Adolf Hitler
(Image credit: Sean Gallup / Getty Images)

The far-right has won the most votes in an Austrian election for the first time since the Nazi era, as the pro-Kremlin, anti-Islam Freedom Party (FPÖ) beat the ruling centre-right People's Party (ÖVP).

FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl told supporters in Vienna that it was a "piece of history that we have written together today". The party, founded by former Nazis just a decade after the end of the Second World War, won 29.2% of the votes. ÖVP came second with 26.5%.

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 Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.