From 05:45 (local time) on Sunday, the polls gradually opened in Austria, where 6.3 million voters are invited to elect the 183 members of the National Council or the Lower House.
Nine parties have candidates in all nine states, with the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) leading the polls throughout the campaign, which was dominated by immigration, precision and the relationship with Russia. However, forming a government should not be an easy task.
The last votes will close today at 5pm (local time), when the first prediction of the result will be announced.
In the latest polls, Herbert Kickl’s FPÖ led with 27-29%, with Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s center-right People’s Party (ÖVP) trailing with 23-25% and Andreas Bübler’s Socialist Party (SPÖ) with 20- 21%. The liberal NEOS get between 8 and 11% and the co-governing Greens get between 8 and 10%.
The list of parties is completed with the Communist Party (KPÖ), which has not entered Parliament since the 1950s, the Beer Party (BIER), led by the punk band Turbobier Domini Vlazny or Marko Pogo, with a central position in “depoliticization of politics”, List by former Greens official Madeleine Petrovich who opposes support for Ukraine and Neither (KEINE), which aspires to attract voters who do not identify with any of the other parties.
If the FPÖ finishes first, it will have recorded a historic victory for post-war Austria. The Freedom Party (FPÖ), which has been leading the polls since the end of 2022, also recently won the European elections, with restrictive immigration proposals, questioning pandemic policy and proximity to Vladimir Putin. In the European Union, it belongs to the same group as the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Its leader, Herbert Kickl, trained close to Jörg Haider in the 2000s, is considered a genuine populist and advertises himself as “anti-establishment”, while at the same time aspiring, as he says, to be “the people’s chancellor”. . The FPÖ has already co-governed twice as a “junior” partner with the ÖVP, but the controversial Kikl will not have an easy time getting a partner. To be excluded from government, it will likely require the cooperation of three parties.
Sources: APE-MPE
