By Francois Murphy
VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrians elect a brand new parliament on Sunday with the far-right Freedom Get together (FPO) aiming to safe its first common election win in a neck-and-neck race with the ruling conservatives that has been dominated by financial worries and immigration.
Having led opinion polls for months, the FPO’s edge over the Austrian Individuals’s Get together (OVP) has shrunk to nearly nothing as Chancellor Karl Nehammer casts himself as a statesman and depicts his rival, FPO chief Herbert Kickl, as a poisonous menace.
Whoever wins will fall effectively in need of an absolute majority, polls present, however declare the appropriate to steer a coalition authorities. Projections are due minutes after polls shut at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT), with outcomes being finessed over the following hours.
“What’s at stake is whether the FPO will appoint the chancellor or not,” Kathrin Stainer-Haemmerle, political science professor on the Carinthia College of Utilized Sciences.
“Should that happen, then I have to say the role of Austria in the European Union would be significantly different. Kickl has often said that (Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orban is a role model for him and he will stand by him.”
The eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO, which is vital of Islam and pledges harder guidelines on asylum seekers, received a nationwide vote for the primary time in June when it beat the OVP by lower than a proportion level in European elections.
An FPO victory would make Austria the most recent European Union nation to register surging far-right help after beneficial properties in international locations together with the Netherlands, France and Germany.
President Alexander Van der Bellen, who oversees the formation of governments, has voiced reservations in regards to the FPO due to its criticism of the EU and its failure to sentence Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The celebration additionally opposes EU sanctions on Moscow, citing Austria’s neutrality.
He has hinted he would possibly thwart Kickl, noting the structure doesn’t require him to ask the first-placed celebration to kind a authorities, despite the fact that that has lengthy been the conference.
The OVP, which just like the FPO backs harder immigration guidelines and tax cuts, is the one celebration open to forming a coalition with the far-right celebration. Polls counsel they may muster a majority collectively, however Nehammer says his celebration won’t be a part of a authorities with Kickl in it.
“Ideally I would vanish into thin air for you but I won’t do you that favour, Mr Nehammer,” Kickl, 55, stated this week when requested if he would stand apart to let his celebration be junior accomplice beneath the OVP.
‘FORTRESS AUSTRIA’
Provocative and polarising, Kickl has relished the function of opposition firebrand however has at occasions appeared uncomfortable attempting to average his tone to widen his management enchantment.
The FPO needs to cease granting asylum altogether and construct a “fortress Austria” stopping migrants from coming into, despite the fact that that will be extensively seen as unlawful or impractical.
In his closing marketing campaign speech, Kickl stated sanctions towards Moscow had been hurting Austria much more than Russia, including: “And if you look at Germany, VW for example, the threat of mass unemployment and everything that then spills over into Austria.”
Nehammer has sought to depict Kickl as a conspiracy theorist shouting from the sidelines whereas he’s operating Austria.
The 51-year-old Nehammer has since 2021 led a coalition with the left-wing Greens, however the alliance has proved fractious with the economic system struggling and inflation worrying voters.
Some voters suppose Nehammer’s crisis-management efforts towards extreme flooding that struck Austria this month in all probability noticed him claw again floor within the election race.
Susanne Pinter, 55, a Greens supporter in Vienna stated the floods had helped Nehammer look statesman-like, as she fretted in regards to the prospect of a far-right victory.
“If the FPO wins … it’ll have bad consequences for women, people of migrant origin and climate change,” she stated.
