Austrian conservative and nationalist parties gain
VIENNA — Austrian politics appeared to take a hard right turn on Sunday, with initial projections in a national election showing the conservative People’s Party on top, with the nationalist Freedom Party and the ruling Social Democrats vying for second.
If confirmed, the result would put 31-year-old foreign minister and People’s Party leader Sebastian Kurz in line to become Austria’s next chancellor after a campaign in which he emphasized the need for the country to get tough on immigration by sealing borders and slashing benefits.
Much of Kurz’s rhetoric echoed positions long held by the Freedom Party, which for decades has anchored the far right of Austrian politics. If Kurz does form a government, he will need a partner, and the Freedom Party is considered the most likely option — replacing a “grand coalition” between Austria’s centre-left and centre-right.
The initial projections by Austrian broadcasters had Kurz’s People’s Party winning 30.2 per cent of the vote, with the Freedom Party at 26.8 per cent and the Social Democrats at 26.3 per cent.
The election came two years since the height of the refugee crisis, and migration issues were at the top of the agenda for much of the campaign.
Kurz, who would be the world’s youngest head of government, frequently boasted that as foreign minister he had closed the Balkan route for asylum seekers in 2016 by shutting Austrian borders to new arrivals. He promised to pressure Europe to do the same now with the central Mediterranean route, the main path for migrants and refugees seeking to enter the continent.
“If there’s one topic that really dominated the campaign, it’s migration and integration,” said Sylvia Kritzinger, a political analyst at the University of Vienna. “Especially with Kurz, it always came back to immigration. We had very little discussion of the issues beyond that.”
The Social Democrats had attempted to shift the debate onto friendlier terrain by emphasizing the robust health of the economy during their four years in government. But Sunday’s result is likely to end the chancellorship of incumbent Christian Kern.
Kritzinger said Kurz’s opponents were flummoxed by how to counteract the young People’s Party leader, who took the reins in the party this year and promptly remade it as his own.
“From a rhetoric perspective, he’s an absolute talent,” Kritzinger said. “The other parties didn’t know how to deal with him.”