New Austrian right-wing coalition government favoured only by supporters

While a majority of Austrian voters would reject a new iteration of a right-wing FPÖ-ÖVP government, the voters of both parties appear to be in favour, with 81% of FPÖ voters and 61% of ÖVP voters in support of the move, according to a new survey conducted by ATV.

Austria’s far-right FPÖ has been leading the federal-level polls for months, polling at about 30% of the vote ahead of the 2024 autumn elections. As political strategists prepare for the election campaign, the centre-right ÖVP has repeatedly entered into state-level coalitions with the far-right.

About 54% of Austrians would reject such a coalition in Vienna, a poll commissioned by TV station ATV from Sunday shows. But the team-up is rather popular with the respective parties’ voters – 81% of FPÖ voters and 61% of ÖVP voters.

However, such a right-wing formation has a rich history of provoking fears among the Austrian population and abroad.

In 2000, Austria was subject to EU sanctions following racist statements by FPÖ dignitaries. In 2019, the ÖVP-FPÖ government collapsed following attempts by the FPÖ leadership to sell the country’s biggest newspaper to an alleged Russian oligarch.

Currently, the two parties are negotiating a government coalition in Salzburg, the third government formation uniting the two parties following similar agreements in Lower Austria and Upper Austria.

Some four million Austrians reside in states governed by the formation.

The main issue that appears to split both sides is whether the centre-right will make FPÖ Chief Herbert Kickl the “people’s chancellor” – a term that Nazi propaganda regularly ascribed to Adolf Hitler but that Kickl also adopted for himself.

At least parts of the conservative party do not favour that approach.

“The idea of a Herbert Kickl as Federal Chancellor is frightening to me,” Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) told Kleine Zeitung while simultaneously arguing that entering into a coalition with the far-right in Salzburg was democratically mandated.

Researcher Peter Hajek concurs. “That the ÖVP will make Herbert Kickl Federal Chancellor is not very likely, at least from today’s perspective,” he said. “But let’s wait and see.”

(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | EURACTIV.de)