The national-conservative Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) emerged on Sunday, January 29th, as the clear victor in the regional election in Lower Austria, the country’s largest state, achieving its best result in the administrative region to date.
The FPÖ, the only major political party represented in Austria’s parliament to oppose mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, mass migration, and sanctions against Russia, garnered 24.2% of the vote, an increase of 9.4% compared with the previous election, making it the second-largest political force in the state.
Meanwhile, the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), although it emerged as the leading party in the vote, saw its share of the vote plummet more than any party represented in Lower Austria’s Landtag, sinking roughly 10 percentage points to 39.9% and losing its absolute majority. It is the party’s worst result in the state since 1945.
Support for the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPD), the oldest extant political party in the country, also declined, albeit much less so than the ruling ÖVP, dropping from nearly 24% to 20.7%. At the same time, the Greens garnered 7.6% of the vote, while the liberal Neos secured 6.7%.
The state election’s results come as the FPÖ’s national support base continues to grow, with results from the latest national polls revealing that the conservative party is, by several points, the most popular political force in the country.
On the night of the election, after the vast majority of the state’s votes had been counted and it became evident that FPÖ had emerged victorious, Christian Hafenecker, the federal party manager said that “corruption has been voted out.” He declared that this is only “the beginning,” referring to the upcoming state elections in Carinthia in March and in Salzburg in April.
During the run-up to the election, Udo Landbauer, the FPÖ’s leader in Lower Austria, repeatedly emphasized that his party was seeking to finally bring an end to what he called the “ÖVP system.” Landbauer also sharply criticized Chancellor Nehammer (ÖVP) for failing to stop vast numbers of asylum seekers from reaching Austria in 2022.
Lower Austrian ÖVP leader and Prime Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, speaking on the election’s result, said: “The FPÖ managed to turn this state election into a federal election.” Despite her party’s poor performance, Mikl-Leitner has ruled out resigning from his leadership post.
