Labour Day saw Austria’s centre-left leadership candidates fight for support while far-right FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl announced he would be a people’s chancellor and institutions would be unable to stop him.
The social democrat SPÖ, is currently in the midst of a leadership squabble and saw the three candidates vie for support. “The goal must be that this country finally gets a social democratic-led federal government again,” said party chief Pamela Rendi-Wagner.
Rendi-Wagner was initially expected to lead the party into the autumn 2024 elections – her leadership was subsequently contested by migration hardliner Hans Peter Doksozil. Andreas Babler, a far-left mayor popular with the party base, has become a contender.
While Babler stressed a “comeback of social democracy was needed,” Doksozil said. “You have to take risks in life.”
The far-right FPÖ, on the other hand, presented a much more unified front.
Speaking to 5000 supporters that chanted his name, party chief Kickl told of becoming a “people’s chancellor,” a title historians have said was once reserved for Adolf Hitler.
“There is something big in the air,” Kickl said. “Time for a total turn to the people and turning away from the elites”.
He added that no other party, nor President Alexander Van der Bellen, would be able to stop his party from leading the government.
The FPÖ is currently polling at around 30%, while the SPÖ has dropped below 25%, putting its second place in peril as the centre-right ÖVP began making gains.
(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | EURACTIV.de)
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