The anti-immigration right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) made important electoral progress on Sunday, October 13th, finishing second in the regional elections in Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The party collected more than a quarter of the votes, 28.2%, its best-ever result in the state, doubling its numbers from 2019.
The winner was the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP), whose support dropped five percentage points compared to the last election; it won 38.4% of the vote. It is a disappointment for the party which suffered its worst-ever result in the state, which it has ruled uninterruptedly since the end of the Second World War.
Though the ÖVP will likely continue governing together in a coalition with the Greens, who finished third with 12.3%, the elections are yet another sign that the balance of power in Austrian politics is shifting to the right, and currently, the Freedom Party has the momentum.
Only two weeks ago, the FPÖ won the national elections for the first time in its history, running a campaign focused on tightening asylum policies and stopping illegal immigration. The party has claimed its right to form a government, but it does not have a majority in parliament, and the other parties are not willing to collaborate with it.
Austrian president Alexander Van der Bellen said last week that, in contrast to tradition, he would not give the FPÖ a mandate to form a government, declaring
It is an absolutely new situation for there to be an election winner with whom evidently no other party wants to govern.
He asked the leaders of the three largest parties—the FPÖ, the governing ÖVP, and the third-placed opposition Social Democrats (SPÖ)—to try and break the “stalemate” themselves.
Herbert Kickl (FPÖ), Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), and Andreas Babler (SPÖ) will meet on Tuesday to start negotiations.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Kickl argued that it was “crystal clear” that his party had won the national elections and should be assigned the task of trying to form a coalition. Kickl criticised the president for breaking a decades-old tradition in not entrusting the FPÖ with the government formation, and disregarding the will of the voters—who want a “solid centre-right coalition” with FPÖ at the helm and ÖVP as the junior partner. If Van der Bellen was really convinced that the Freedom Party had no chance of being a part of the next government, the president could have instantly tasked the second-placed People’s Party to start coalition negotiations, Kickl argued.
The attempts to sideline his party seem to have angered voters and driven more of them to come out in support of the FPÖ. According to the latest opinion polls, the right-wing party now has the support of 33% of the electorate, five percentage points more than their result two weeks ago.
