The weekend brought yet another far-right election win to Europe, with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) securing 28.9% of the vote, making it the largest party in the National Council. Following recent advancements in a host of EU national elections, Herbert Kickl’s win reinforces the trend sweeping across the continent, and threatens to fragment the EU’s political and economic cohesion, which forms the root of Brussels’ competence.
Founded by a former SS Officer in the years following WWII, the FPÖ is one of Europe’s more extreme far-right parties. It is a long-standing representative of the disgruntled in Austria, offering far-right populist solutions to the hardships of the people, more than doubling its share of the popular vote compared to the last National Council elections; therefore, the result makes it clear that Austrians are becoming increasingly desperate. The FPÖ stood on a platform of radical reform of the migration system through mass ‘remigration,’ bringing about a return of the market economy, preserving Austria’s national identity and traditions, and pursuing a pro-Russian foreign policy. While the party is clearly and overtly pursuing policies contrary to the mainstream EU agenda, EU officials have been quick to downplay the impact of the election win on Austrian policymaking and the cohesion of the EU more broadly, arguing that similar election results across Europe have not led to any significant policy changes.
Some see this perspective as dangerous complacency, but the FPÖ falls short of a vote share that would allow them to rule alone, and it is hoped that coalition politics will tame some of the extremism of the FPÖ. Such a coalition will certainly limit the party’s ability to institute radical policy initiatives and will most likely be headed by a Chancellor from the more moderate right-wing party, The Austrian People’s Party (OVP). The FPÖ will, therefore, struggle to advance their radical agenda and may be forced by the other parties to take a back seat in government. This trend is evidenced across Europe, as parties from across the political spectrum have united around the centre and the left to prevent the far-right from assuming office. Consider Bardella in France and Wilders in The Netherlands, for instance.
So the EU technocrats may have a point: for the time being, the Austrian election result presents a minor threat to their agenda. The consistent attempts to keep election winners out of the driver’s seat of national government will likely only empower these former-Nazi populists in the longer term, granting them a seat at the table while absolving them of any real responsibility of government. As centrist governments try and fail to tackle the major issues over the next five years, the FPÖ will gain both legitimacy, as they partake in governmental processes and institutions, and popularity, as the dominant moderates fail to resolve the migrant crisis, fiscal deficits, and a loss of sovereignty to the EU. After all, the war in Ukraine shows no sign of abating, and with the escalation in the Middle East, any hope of a sudden relenting of the migrant crisis is a pipe dream.
Victor Orbán’s government is a prime example of the danger the hard-right movement could pose for the EU. His consistent opposition to EU climate policies, sanctioning Russia, and human rights issues have proved an effective platform for domestic popularity but has increasingly strained his relationship with the EU. Most notably, his stance against the immediate implementation of sanctions against Russia in the weeks following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine highlighted the ability of the hard-right to obstruct and dilute EU external action and cohesive policy formulation.
Far-right victories in European elections, such as the recent one in Austria, are indicative of a concerning trend that should alarm the EU. It is yet another advancement of a variant of nationalism that will threaten the very foundation of the EU community in the coming decades as Brussels’ agenda becomes increasingly at odds with the policies and political priorities of its constituent members. The EU’s ability to navigate and absorb the growing tensions between the path set by its bureaucratic institutions and the political will of individual member states will be crucial in the coming decades. How well it manages this delicate balance may ultimately determine the future of the European project as we know it today.
Image: Wikimedia Commons / C.Stadler/Bwag
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