Austrian voters handed a first ever general election victory to the far-right Freedom Party on Sunday, vote projections showed, illustrating rising support for hard-right parties in Europe fueled by concern over immigration levels.
The Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO held a slim lead in opinion polls for months over Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP) in a campaign dominated by immigration and worries about the economy.
The FPO, which wants to stop granting asylum altogether and build a “fortress Austria” preventing migrants from entering, was initially led by a former Nazi lawmaker in the 1950s.
It has sought to moderate its image, but new controversy about its past surfaced at the weekend, when a video published by newspaper Der Standard showed members of the party attending a funeral where a song popular with the Nazi SS was sung.
A Jewish student group in Vienna then filed a complaint against FPO members accusing them of breaching anti-Nazi laws. The FPO did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
This is what happens when leftist orgs are gutted, the far-right just walks in unimpeded.
“Fascism is fine as long as you are pro-EU and anti-Russia”
Isn’t that what happened with Meloni in Italy? She was considered an unrepentant fascist and right winger, then got elected and suddenly she is just “right leaning” because she changed her tune on NATO and Ukraine.
TIL he’s from a Russian Empire liberal political noble family of Dutch descent that fled to Estonia during the Revolution