VIENNA – In Austria, the far right is a stubborn wart that sprouts and recedes but refuses to go away. In 2019, the Freedom Party (FPÖ)’s coalition with the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) collapsed after the then-FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache was caught offering government contracts to someone he believed was the niece of a Russian oligarch in exchange for campaign support. The FPÖ’s vote share fell ten points to 16.2 per cent in parliamentary elections, before the party split in two. Four years later, however, reliable opinion polling shows that 26 per cent of Austrian voters would opt for the far right, offering the horrifying prospect of the FPÖ becoming the largest party in parliament.
The FPÖ is lucky. Despite its past scandals, the political conditions in Austria have made a far-right comeback easier. In spite of government programmes like the capping of electricity prices at 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, inflation has driven the price of food and fuel up and bequeathed a cost-of-living crisis for those on lower and middle incomes. And in 2022, more than 100,000 people applied for asylum in Austria: more than in 2015, the year of the migration crisis. These include many migrants from India and Tunisia who have reached Austria via land-based routes and stand no chance of successfully claiming asylum.
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