Austrian far-right party shows strength with state election win in Styria

Freedom Party’s victory is show of force for the Russia-friendly faction, adds to pressure on parties trying to form a national government

VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria’s far-right Freedom Party won a state election in Styria for the first time on Sunday, a projection indicated, in an echo of September’s general election and a show of strength while national coalition talks continue without it.

Sunday’s election in Styria, which is home to Austria’s second city, Graz, has little immediate impact nationally but it raises the pressure on party leaders currently attempting to forge the country’s first three-way government since 1949.

It is only the second state which the euroskeptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO) has ever won, the first having been Carinthia, the fiefdom of then-FPO leader Joerg Haider in his heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“There’s been a landslide in Styria. I didn’t expect such a resounding result,” the FPO’s deputy leader in Styria, Stefan Hermann, told national broadcaster ORF.

A projection by pollster Foresight for ORF and news agency APA showed the FPO first on 35.3% and the conservative People’s Party second on 26.6%. The estimate, based on a count of 70% of votes cast, had a margin of error of 1.0 percentage points.

It is the first time since World War II that neither the OVP nor the Social Democrats (SPO) have won in the state bordering Slovenia where actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was born.

The chairman and top candidate of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPOe) for the Austrian National Council (Nationalrat) election Herbert Kickl (3rd R) applauds after kicking off his party’s electoral campaign, on September 7, 2024 in Graz, Styria. (Alex HALADA / AFP)

The FPO will need a coalition partner to control a majority of seats in Styria’s state assembly and form a government.

In contrast to national elections, after which the Austrian president decides whom to task with forming a government, in Styria the party that wins, in this case the FPO, is automatically called upon to set up a state government.