{"id":1493002,"date":"2024-09-30T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1493002"},"modified":"2024-09-30T09:45:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T13:45:00","slug":"austrian-right-wing-freedom-party-scores-historic-victory-in-national-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/austrian-right-wing-freedom-party-scores-historic-victory-in-national-elections\/1493002\/","title":{"rendered":"Austrian Right-Wing Freedom Party Scores Historic Victory In National Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austrian Right-Wing Freedom Party Scores Historic Victory In National Elections<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Less than a month after a crushing loss for Germany’s ruling coalition saw the the first victory for a German right-wing party since World War II<\/a>, Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party scored a historic victory of its own on Sunday, winning the most votes in the country’s national election for the first time after the eurosceptic party campaigned on mass deportation, cracking down on illegal immigration, and halting aid to the giant money laundromat that is Ukraine.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

And, just like after AfD’s stunning success on September 1 which was met with a full-court press from establishment parties to prevent it from ruling, so Austria\u2019s traditional political powers have pledged to block the conservative Freedom Party from forming a government, marking the latest effort to stem the rising tide of populism in Europe.<\/p>\n

Austria’s Freedom Party, which the fake news calls “far-right” just caused a major earthquake in Europe by WINNING the country’s general election after campaigning on mass deportation and cracking down on illegal immigration<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir model is Viktor Orban and the Hungarian model.\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/lMZIjhSHZb<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 George (@BehizyTweets) September 29, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

How they\u2019ll achieve that, replicating a strategy adopted in\u00a0Germany\u00a0and\u00a0France, is set to become the subject of lengthy coalition negotiations beginning in the days ahead. As Bloomberg reports, despite winning the\u00a0most votes\u00a0for the first time in a national election, the Freedom Party\u2019s divisive leader,\u00a0Herbert Kickl, appears unlikely to play a role in Austria\u2019s next cabinet if the establishment gets its way. That’s because all other parties set to win seats in parliament have vowed not to work with him, depriving his group of the 50% needed to form a government.<\/p>\n

That leaves open the possibility for the second and third-placed parties, the conservative People\u2019s Party of Chancellor\u00a0Karl Nehammer\u00a0and the Socialists, to join forces to rule the country instead.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

While the Freedom Party may \u201ccreate a stink\u201d publicly about not receiving the mandate to form a government, Kickl will likely content himself with building popular support in opposition, said Marcus How, a geopolitical risk analyst at VE Insight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could feasibly play into Kickl\u2019s hands, as he\u2019ll argue the coalition formed of losers,<\/strong>\u201d How said. \u201cHe will not unreasonably bank on its dysfunction and unpopularity, hoping that this will strengthen the Freedom Party ahead of the next elections.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

FAR-RIGHT WINS AUSTRIA ELECTIONS, BOOSTING EUROPEAN RIGHTWING SURGE<\/p>\n

Anti-immigration, anti-aid to Ukraine, and the eurosceptic Freedom Party (FPO) won 29.1% of the vote after the polls closed.<\/p>\n

Some commentators say this is a MAGA wave across Europe.<\/p>\n

FPO leader Herbert Kickl\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/XMcWbe38GH<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Lenka Houskova White (@white_lenka) September 29, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

As Bloomberg notes, a combination of Austria\u2019s two main traditional parties used to be the country\u2019s default arrangement, making up more than half of its governments since World War II. On occasion, the Freedom Party joined one of them to run the country \u2014 most recently from 2017 in\u00a0Sebastian Kurz\u2019s cabinet \u2014 though never as the dominant group. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

That’s no longer the case.<\/p>\n

BREAKING: The anti-immigration, right-wing nationalist \u201cFreedom for Austria Party\u201d has just trounced the left-wing parties in Austria\u2019s parliamentary elections today, winning 30% of the vote.<\/p>\n

The Austrian people are sick and tired of Open Borders! \ud83d\udc4f\ud83d\udc4f\ud83d\udc4f pic.twitter.com\/VidueoiMWl<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Cillian (@CilComLFC) September 29, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

Opening negotiations with Freedom Party over a potential coalition would be \u201creckless,\u201d Nehammer said on Sunday. The People\u2019s Party will \u201cstand by their word\u201d not to form a government with the far-right movement as long as Kickl remains its leader.<\/p>\n

The People\u2019s Party and Socialists are projected to have 93 seats together, according to preliminary results \u2014 just enough for a majority \u2014 but they still may include a third party in their coalition, most likely the liberal NEOS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t have you in government,\u201d NEOS head\u00a0Beate Meinl-Reisinger\u00a0told Kickl. \u201cI simply find you wrong for the country\u201d which is ironic since the largest group of Austrian votes simply find him right for the country.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Kickl was quick to condemn the move to freeze him out of talks, accusing his opponents of breaking with constitutional precedent and ignoring the will of the voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the Freedom Party is the strongest and suddenly everything is supposed to be different,\u201d <\/strong>he told public broadcaster ORF. \u201cThis is their next attempt to fool the people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet fooling the people is all they have left: blocking right wing parties has been the recurring political pattern in myriad elections across Europe this year. In Germany, the AfD won regional elections in Thuringia, only for the other parties to refuse to engage with the party. A left-wing alliance in France stopped Marine Le Pen\u2019s National Rally from scoring an election victory in July.Meanwhile, Geert Wilders\u2019s far-right group took power in the Netherlands as member of a four-party coalition, but Wilders himself isn\u2019t part of the executive.<\/p>\n

Such an option looks unlikely in Austria, as Kickl has said a similar decision by then-party chief J\u00f6rg Haider in the early 2000s to give the chancellor position to the People\u2019s Party \u2014 despite coming ahead of them in the election \u2014\u00a0was a mistake.<\/p>\n

A three-party coalition would be a first for Austria and finding common ground for a joint government program will be an arduous task. All party leaders \u2014 even Kickl \u2014 agree that \u201csomething has to change\u201d in the country, but they disagree on the particulars.<\/p>\n

Austrian coalition negotiations have traditionally taken months, not weeks, so the talks could stretch into next year. Nehammer\u2019s existing team \u2014 made up of the People\u2019s Party and the Greens \u2014 will continue to govern in the meantime.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In any case, whoever forms the next government will face a lengthy list of policy challenges.<\/p>\n

Despite being one of Europe\u2019s wealthiest nations based on gross domestic product per capita, the competitiveness of Austria\u2019s industrial base is at risk from aggressive wage hikes and government hand-outs to compensate for fast inflation. The likely end of Russian gas deliveries in December removes a cheaper source of energy, and the transition to alternative sources is fraught with risks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 09\/30\/2024 – 05:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/austrian-right-wing-freedom-party-scores-historic-victory-national-elections<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Austrian Right-Wing Freedom Party Scores Historic Victory In National Elections Less than a month after a crushing loss for Germany’s ruling coalition saw the the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1493003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1493002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1493003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}