The result shows many similarities with recent elections in the Netherlands, France, and eastern Germany, where far-right anti-immigration parties emerged as the biggest winners.
The pro-Russian FPÖ party doubled its support to 29 percent (compared to five years ago), while the ÖVP lost a quarter of its support, dropping to 26.3 percent. In the agricultural countryside, the ÖVP remained just slightly ahead of the anti-EU party led by Herbert Kickl.
The social-democratic opposition party SPÖ did not exceed just over 20 percent, while the Greens’ support nearly halved to just over 8 percent, and the liberal NEOS remained stuck at about 10 percent.
Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) has called on President Von der Bellen (Greens) to now give the far-right Freedom Party the mandate to form a coalition. All Austrian parties have stated that they absolutely do not want the controversial party leader Kickl to become chancellor.
Whether such a rejection applies only to Kickl personally, or to the entire FPÖ, remains to be seen. Some ÖVP leaders have hinted that a coalition under a different FPÖ leader might be possible. In that case, a comparison arises with the situation in the Netherlands where the largest party was able to form a coalition, but the controversial party leader Geert Wilders was not allowed to become prime minister.
Since regional elections will be held later this month and next month in two Austrian provinces governed by an ÖVP coalition, some within the party are hesitant to quickly sideline the FPÖ out of fear of losing ground again. In theory, it is also possible that although the FPÖ forms the largest faction, after a failed formation attempt a three-party coalition of ÖVP and SPÖ, together with the smaller liberals or the Greens, could still take office.
For the Austrian agricultural sector, it can be expected that with this ‘shift to the right’ a stronger anti-European policy will be developed in any case. As in the Netherlands, the question will be to what extent Austria can escape the detailed frameworks and guidelines of European agricultural and climate policy. Usually, things are not as drastic as they seem, and such processes are generally preceded by years of procedures.