Amidst all the focus on the triumph of Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Thuringia’s local state elections earlier this month, less attention has been paid to another upcoming European election in which the far-right is expected to do well: the general elections in Austria on 29 September.
Kickl has made opposition to immigration the main platform of his appeal to voters
Just as the polls in Thuringia and neighbouring Saxony saw a dramatic rise in support for the hard right AfD – with the party also set to win in Brandenburg’s state elections later this month – the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) is forecast to triumph and hoover up a quarter of all votes cast. As with other recent elections elsewhere in Europe, the issue of immigration has dominated debate. The FPO, which is led by Herbert Kickl, has benefited greatly.
Unlike the AfD, a pop-up populist party founded only in 2013, the FPO has deep, and troubling, roots in Austrian politics.
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