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Austria announces national election date with far right ahead in polls

Austria will hold a parliamentary election on September 29th, conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced, with the Alpine nation's far-right FPOe party ahead in the polls.

Published: 12 June 2024 08:52 CEST
Austria announces national election date with far right ahead in polls
Austrian current Chancellor is Karl Nehammer from Austria's People Party, ÖVP. (Photo by Joe Klamar / AFP)

On Sunday, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPOe) won the country’s EU elections, the first time it has won a nationwide ballot.

The anti-immigrant FPOe is also expected to win September’s vote, leading the polls with an estimated 26 to 31 percent of the vote.

The date of the election will be approved by the cabinet on Wednesday.

“Tomorrow’s meeting of the Council of Ministers will set 29 September as the date for the national elections”, Nehammer wrote on X.

Following Sunday’s election, in which his ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP) came second with 24.5 percent, Nehammer said he had heard the voters’ message.

He added he would seek to address their concerns ahead of the national vote, including cracking down on illegal migration.

A win in September would put the FPOe — which was founded in the 1950s by former Nazis — in pole position to form a government.

But experts say it might prove difficult for the FPOe to find partners to form a majority to govern, as a record number of parties are expected to make it into parliament.

For the first time in Austria, it could take a coalition of three parties to form a majority government.

The FPOe has been part of a ruling coalition several times but has never governed.

After a slump in popularity in 2019, the party has since bounced back, having seized on discontent over the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic, as well as soaring inflation and migration.

The OeVP currently governs Austria in a coalition with the Greens.

But their approval ratings have plummeted, with the conservatives polling at about 21 percent.

The coalition has repeatedly clashed over economic interests and climate policy.

In 2019, the previous government coalition between the conservatives — then led by chancellor Sebastian Kurz — and the FPOe collapsed in a spectacular corruption scandal.

But Kurz was re-elected and formed a new government in 2020, this time with the Greens, before stepping down in 2021 amid further graft allegations.

Nehammer succeeded Kurz as chancellor shortly afterwards.

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How Austria’s centre-left SPÖ party plans to change integration policy

Asylum, migration, and integration policies are a much-debated issue in Austria, particularly as the country heads to its national elections in the fall. What are the centre-left SPÖ plans?

Published: 24 June 2024 12:12 CEST
How Austria's centre-left SPÖ party plans to change integration policy

National elections in Austria will take place this fall, and one of the most debated issues – certainly one that has been driving voters for the past few years – is the refugee and asylum policy debates. 

While the far-right party FPÖ has gained popularity with extremist views such as closing off Austria entirely for asylum seekers, the centre-right ÖVP has also presented tougher stances. The chancellor’s party has publicly defended the creation of “asylum centres” for processing outside of the EU borders. Chancellor Karl Nehammer has also fully supported the UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to “safe third countries”. 

A tougher stance on refugee policies has proved popular in Austria, and the centre-left SPÖ party has also seemed to lean toward stricter ideas more recently. However, since the party got a new leadership, a precise migration programme had not been presented yet. However, the issue was pressing, particularly following the party’s poor performance in the EU elections, when migration played a key role.

READ ALSO: How a change in the profile of asylum seekers is impacting Austria

So what are the party’s plans?

The SPÖ presented a new” masterplan” for asylum, migration, and integration. According to the SPÖ, the “Doskozil-Kaiser paper,” which has existed since 2018, has been “sharpened,” resulting in an “offensive paper” with approaches for action, said SPÖ leader Andreas Babler.

The aim was to “ensure balance and order” under “the premise of humanity”, said Babler at a press conference in Vienna.

The plan’s main points include faster procedures at the EU’s external borders, a fair distribution of refugees within the EU, and sanctions against countries that refuse to do so. With this, the SPÖ wants to reach a 75 percent reduction in the number of asylum applications. 

For example, the party leaders mentioned Hungary, where there were only 45 applications in 2023, compared to almost 60,000 in Austria. They said Hungary had to be persuaded to cooperate by exhausting all legal and political means.

The SPÖ proposes procedure centres along the EU’s external borders so that procedures can be completed more quickly and people do not hand themselves over to smugglers. The EU should set up “common centres for asylum applications”, for example, in embassies. 

People should only be distributed within the EU once the asylum applications have been assessed favourably. As a first step, cooperation between individual states could occur without the consent of all EU member states.

READ ALSO: When do Austrians think an immigrant is successfully integrated?

‘Integration year’ and deportation

The SPÖ plan contains an “extended mandatory integration year” that would ensure refugees get “German and values courses.” However, severe penalties, including deportation, would be imposed for serious offences or “repeated minor crimes.” 

Instead of mass accommodation, the SPÖ proposes small centres enabling better contact with the population. Women’s rights should also become a “central guiding principle for integration”. Women’s self-determination is the top priority, said SPÖ women’s spokesperson Eva-Maria Holzleitner.

The party reiterated that asylum is fundamentally a human right that should never be questioned. However, those who are denied their asylum request would be deported to their country of origin or safe third countries, the party advocates. 

READ ALSO: Who needs to take Austria’s integration exam?

Criticism from the right

Over the weekend, party representatives from far-right FPÖ and centre-right ÖVP have come out to criticise the SPÖ proposals. 

An FPÖ spokesperson said the plan is “pure PR policy” and that, in truth, the SPÖ had “always opened the door to illegal mass immigration under the guise of asylum”. The ÖVP said the proposals are just “headlines instead of concrete proposals for solutions”. 

In a press release, the party said that no capacity limit was presented, showing “that the SPÖ has still not realised that illegal migration cannot be countered by further squeezing the Austrian taxpayer”

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