W.While Europe may be “sleepwalking into a far-right trap,” Austria is consciously walking into it. After all, polls have been predicting the latest electoral victory for the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) for almost two years. Herbert Gicl, leader of the far-right party, declared that his victory was the beginning of a new era, best understood as an inevitable development. If anything, the country's recent election results confirmed a broader pattern of normalization of the far right in Europe in general and Austria in particular.
Although 29% was its best result in a national election, the FPÖ has consistently achieved results. Since 1990, double-digit members have been included in the national government several times and currently govern in several states with the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). After the last regional elections in Vorarlberg, the ÖVP will form its fourth regional alliance with the FPÖ there. Therefore, Austria is an excellent example of the dangerous myopia of far-right normalizing parties, led in the 21st century mainly by conservative parties.
It began as a way to strengthen its own power, but the ÖVP's repeated inclusion of the FPÖ and the national government helped mainstream far-right political positions. Ultimately, that helps win the September election. Because if the mainstream already parrots the extreme right, why not vote for the “true” one? As far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen once said, people prefer the original to the copy. Research confirms it.
The ÖVP will now become the youngest party in a coalition with a dominant FPÖ. The far right is now the largest group in the right-wing bloc, as has been the case following recent elections in several European countries such as Italy and the Netherlands. Now that many conservative parties work with far-right parties at the national or local level, it is empty and hypocritical to suddenly question their competence and capabilities, but not only for the far right.
It is not surprising that the far-right orientation of the ÖVP – on some issues – is linked to its own radicalization. Islam and immigration – has created expectations among his own voters. Today, a significant portion of ÖVP supporters consider the FPÖ to be a better coalition partner than any major party. In a recent poll before the election, almost half of ÖVP voters (48%) said the party should govern with the “Gickle FPÖ”, while a third (34%) of ÖVP voters wanted to govern with the “Babler SPÖ”. Andreas Popler, leader of the Social Democrats and his party.
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Although the ÖVP was the only major party that did not categorically rule out governing with the FPÖ before the elections, it declared its leader Kikli a non-executive. ÖVP leader Karl Nehhammer, who still maintains this strange division – as if Kikl were somehow exceptional – is already at odds with almost half of his electorate. Furthermore, Kikl was Minister of the Interior in the previous ÖVP-FPÖ government.
Coincidentally, during that government, undermined by the unpopular Ibiza scandal, the ÖVP chose to ignore the behavior of the FPÖ: as Minister of the Interior, Kickl ordered a police search of Austria's own national intelligence agency, which was later declared illegal and disproportionate, the basic reasons for the search. turned out to be unfounded. Also undermining the ÖVP office was the conviction of former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz for making false statements in a parliamentary investigation that supposedly demonstrated corruption. This suggests that close cooperation with the far right normalizes not only their political positions but also their behavior. Given that the ÖVP did little to stop the FPÖ when it was the majority party in the coalition, what can we expect from the junior partner?
Importantly, Austria is not the only Western European country exhibiting this dangerous far-right trend. For example, in both Italy and Sweden, a far-right party has become very popular within the right-wing bloc. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders was normalized to shore up a right-wing coalition led by the conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). When Wilders' Freedom Party (PPV) unexpectedly won the election, VVD members forced their party leader Dilan Yesilkas into the PPV-dominated coalition. Without Wilders as prime minister. A similar process will continue in Austria and will not stop there.
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Kass Mude is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF Professor of International Affairs at the University of Georgia and a faculty member. The extreme right today. Gabriela Greilinger is a doctoral student at the University of Georgia
