A far-right leader could soon take the helm in EU member country Austria. Here's why it matters

VIENNA, Austria — A party that advocates an end to economic sanctions against Russia and has called for the “re-migration of uninvited foreigners” could soon give Austria its first government led by the far right since World War II, with a leader who has a provocative style at its helm.

Attempts to form a government without the far-right Freedom Party collapsed in recent days, more than three months after it won a parliamentary election. President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday tasked its leader, Herbert Kickl, with trying to put together a coalition in the coming weeks or months.

The Freedom Party was founded in 1956 by former Nazis and, over the decades, has become an established political force in Austria. It has led provincial governments and served as a junior partner in national governments — but never led a national administration until now.

Here’s a look at the stakes if Kickl succeeds in forming a new government:

What brought Austria to this point?

The Freedom Party has come back strongly since its last stint in government ended in a scandal in 2019, benefiting from rising voter anger about immigration and inflation.

In September's legislative elections, the party won 28.8% of the vote, a nearly 13-point gain from four years earlier. The governing conservative Austrian People's Party came in second with 26.3% and the Social Democrats third with 21.1%.

It's usual for Austrian elections to result in coalitions, but this result was particularly complicated because none of the other party leaders at the time were prepared to go into government with the Freedom Party under Kickl.

The president asked outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer to try to set up a new government, but talks on potential coalitions without the far right stumbled over how to get Austria's budget in shape and revive the economy. On Saturday, Nehammer said he would resign.

Van der Bellen then called in Kickl – a sharp-tongued provocateur who last year mocked the now 80-year-old president as “a mummy” and “senile” – for talks that led to Monday’s offer for the Freedom Party to try to form a new government.

Who is Kickl?

The 56-year-old is known for overstepping accepted boundaries and shocking the political establishment.

A former speechwriter for late former far-right leader Jörg Haider and a longtime campaign strategist who coined catchy and provocative anti-immigration slogans, Kickl was interior minister from 2017 to 2019 when the Freedom Party was a junior partner in a coalition government under conservative then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. He became the Freedom Party leader in June 2021.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kickl joined some other critics of the World Health Organization in advocating use of ivermectin, a medicine for treatment of parasitic worms in animals, to treat the disease.

The Freedom Party over the years has attracted a neo-Nazi fringe, but it has publicly disassociated itself from decades of covert antisemitism. In 2015, a party lawmaker was expelled for backing an antisemitic comment on social media and Kickl, the party's general secretary at the time, said she had “crossed a red line.”

While interior minister in 2018, Kickl denied any intention of being provocative when he said asylum-seekers in Austria might be held “in a concentrated way in one place” as authorities assessed their applications.

The European Union is rattled again

Years after financial crisis drove a wedge in the European bloc, and nearly five years after Brexit, the European Union is facing a new sign of internal discord: The 27-member bloc has been a stalwart supporter of Ukraine, but unity is fraying.

Austria, which has a longstanding policy of military neutrality, has not provided weapons to Ukraine.

Far-right movements have been on the rise in the EU in recent years. The U.S presidential election victory of Donald Trump – who shares many of their values and policy positions – in November has further emboldened them.

But concern lingers about the rise of hard-right movements in Europe.

Alon Ischay of the Austrian Union of Jewish Students said the turn to Kickl was “important" and expressed concerns about how the Freedom Party leader has used the term “Volkskanzler” — the people’s chancellor — which was used by the Nazis to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Kickl has rejected the comparison.

“That this person might get the mandate to form a government is unacceptable to us,” said Ischay, who was among hundreds of protesters outside the presidential palace on Monday.

The Freedom Party is pro-Russian and skeptical about EU mandates, calling for a “Fortress Austria” that can wrest decision-making power from Brussels. The party’s rise has coincided with rising voter anger about immigration and inflation.

The Freedom Party is part of a right-wing populist alliance in the European Parliament, Patriots for Europe.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, seen by many as the most pro-Russia leader of any EU country, hailed “an historic victory” for the Freedom Party after Austria's elections in September. Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders said his movement was “winning” in Europe.