The FPÖ: An Unlikely Voice Against EU Ambitions in Austria

Some victories are no real surprise. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) led the polls for years. Now it became the strongest force in the elections. Herbert Kickl, the incarnation of evil for all parties to the left of the centre, won most votes and can now claim the chancellery. That is why the media are talking about an ‘earthquake.’

Kickl is less charismatic as his predecessors Jörg Haider and Heinz-Christian Strache, but he dares to challenge the powerful European Union (EU) and its leader Ursula von der Leyen. So supposedly the danger of an ‘Orbanisation’ looms, as Kickl may opt for the path of his Hungarian neighbour, and, like the obstinate Victor Orban, promises to resist the EU’s migration policy ambitions.

The question is whether this would be so bad. The Austrian election results are not difficult to interpret: the majority voted for the FPÖ and its conservative counterpart, the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). The Socialists (SPÖ), Greens and Communists received only 30 per cent. But although, unlike Germany, Austria has no ‘firewall against the right’ and the FPÖ has already been part of several governments, the media are now beginning to give an exegesis of the will of the electorate, and unsurprisingly, they urge there should be an ÖVP/SPÖ government.

Once again, it seems, the will of the people is swept under the carpet. As all parties except the FPÖ ignore the wishes of the ‘sovereign’ regarding the key issue of migration, which is precisely why more and more voters are opting for the only available opposition. As long as mass immigration at the expense of the locals continues, this is not likely to change. It does not take rocket-science to comprehend that, but the self-proclaimed ‘elites’ continue to ignore it.

The ‘alternative’ favoured by the media is an alliance between the ÖVP and the SPÖ and a third partner, which would in fact be a continuation of the present stalemate.

It is highly questionable whether and how such a ménage à trois could agree on anything beyond the redistribution of money. The Austrian Socialists and the ÖVP have far less in common than the ÖVP and the FPÖ, so that the ÖVP is now stuck between a rock and a hard place, and with it the whole country. Needed are reforms that tackle burning taboos, something the ÖVP and SPÖ are equally incapable of, which in turn, of course, only strengthens the position of the FPÖ, if such a coalition breaks up.

That, more or less, is the official ‘narrative’. The framework is a struggle between ‘left’ and ‘right’ and the desired goal is a kind of popular front of ‘democrats’ against the reborn ‘Austrofascists’.

The rise of conservative movements against the growing state encroachment from the 1990s onwards was a godsend for Europe’s transnational elites, allowing them to delegitimise popular discontent. In Austria, Jörg Haider positioned the FPÖ as the representative of the ‘little people’. His bizarre nostalgia for the Austrian pre-war era provided the template for framing him as a right-wing extremist.

At the same time, his criticism of migration and the long-term domination of the country by the SPÖ and ÖVP drove more and more voters into his arms. Instead of responding to his legitimate demands, however, the established political cartel stylised him as a new Hitler and prophesied the end of democracy.

In this way, they gave a moral charge to complex social issues that needed to be addressed, made them a taboo to discuss and turned them into a battle between the forces of darkness and the forces of light. The tactic worked brilliantly and became the blueprint for dealing with ‘populists’ such as the AfD. Since then, the ‘fight against the right’ has been the pan-European playground for denouncing any scepticism concerning the global ‘transformation’ as propagated by the World Economic Forum, the EU and the postmodern left.

Any doubt is reflexively denounced as a precursor to right-wing extremism, thus in effect holding the liberal sections of society hostage.

While I have never shared Jörg Haider’s views and have always detested him and his party, today the FPÖ stands as the only party in Austria questioning the EU’s dubious ambitions and detrimental migration policy. It defends citizens’ rights to free speech, cash ownership, and self-determination, addresses regulatory excesses from the pandemic, supports arms sales in Ukraine, and emphasizes the need for diplomatic talks with Russia. These positions may not be universally accepted, but they are not solely ‘right-wing’ and deserve a place in a healthy democratic discourse.

If someone had asked me twenty years ago who would articulate such topics, I surely would have guessed some sort of ‘progressive’ force. Now, by a strange twist of trends, it is the FPÖ. But that doesn’t make the issues themselves any less crucial. It just shows how dramatically times change.

(The author is an historian and novelist who writes historically-aware crime fiction. He is currently working on a book on Germany’s migration crisis. Views personal)