Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria[note 1] (German: Freiheitliche Partei Österreich - FPÖ) is a national-conservative[6][7][8] and right-wing populist[15] political party in Austria. It has been led by Herbert Kickl since 2021.[16] It is the third largest of five parties in the National Council, with 30 of the 183 seats, and won 16.2% of votes cast in the 2019 legislative election and it is represented in all nine state legislatures. On a European level, the FPÖ is a founding member of the Identity and Democracy Party and its six MEPs sit with the Identity and Democracy (ID) group.
Freedom Party of Austria Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs
FPÖ
Herbert Kickl
Harald Vilimsky
7 April 1956
Theobaldgasse 19/4
A-1060 Vienna
Neue Freie Zeitung
Ring Freiheitlicher Studenten
Ring Freiheitlicher Jugend
60,000
- Liberal International
- (1978–1993)
Blue
- "Immer wieder Österreich"[3]
- "Always Austria"
The FPÖ was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents (VdU), representing pan-Germanists and national liberals opposed to socialism and Catholic clericalism, represented by the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), respectively. Its first leader, Anton Reinthaller, was a former Nazi functionary and SS officer, but the FPÖ did not advocate far-right policies and presented itself as a centrist party.[17] The FPÖ was long the third largest in Austria and had modest support. Under the leadership of Norbert Steger in the early 1980s, it sought to style itself on Germany's Free Democratic Party (FDP).[18][19][20] The FPÖ gave external support to SPÖ chancellor Bruno Kreisky (SPÖ) after the 1970 election and joined Fred Sinowatz's government, as SPÖ's junior partner, after the 1983 election.
Jörg Haider became leader of the party in 1986, after which it began an ideological turn towards right-wing populism. This resulted in a strong surge in electoral support, but also led the SPÖ to break ties, and a splinter in the form of the Liberal Forum in 1993. In the 1999 election, the FPÖ won 26.9% of the vote, becoming the second most popular party, ahead of the ÖVP by around 500 votes. The two parties eventually reached a coalition agreement in which ÖVP retained the office of chancellor. The FPÖ soon lost most of its popularity, falling to 10% in the 2002 election, but remained in government as junior partner. Internal tensions led Haider and much of the party leadership to leave in 2005, forming the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), which replaced the FPÖ as governing partner. Heinz-Christian Strache then became leader, and the party gradually regained its popularity, peaking at 26.0% in the 2017 election. The FPÖ once again became junior partner in government with the ÖVP. In May 2019, the Ibiza affair led to the collapse of the government and the resignation of Strache from both the offices of vice-chancellor and party leader.[21] The resulting snap election saw the FPÖ fall to 16.2% and return to opposition.[22][23]
International relations[edit]
While the FPÖ is currently not a member of any European or international organisations, it has ties with several European political parties and groupings. Additionally, according to political analyst Thomas Hofer, the party's policies and brash style helped inspire like-minded parties across Europe.[133] From 1978 to 1993, under the party's liberal leadership, the party was a member of the Liberal International.[38] In the early years of Haider's leadership, meetings were held with figures such as Jean-Marie Le Pen of the French National Front and Franz Schönhuber of the German Republicans.[134] In the late 1990s, however, he chose to distance himself from Le Pen, and refused to join Le Pen's EuroNat project. Following the FPÖ's entrance in government in 2000, Haider sought to establish his own alliance of right-wing parties. For his project, Haider tried to establish stable cooperations with the Vlaams Blok party in Belgium and the Northern League party in Italy, as well as some other parties and party groupings. In the end, the efforts to establish a new alliance of parties were not successful.[135]
Under the leadership of Strache, the party has cooperated mainly with the Northern League, Vlaams Belang (successor to the Vlaams Blok, which it has traditionally maintained good ties with),[136] and the Pro Germany Citizens' Movement in Germany.[137][138] The FPÖ also has contacts with the Danish People's Party, the Slovak National Party, the Sweden Democrats, the Hungarian Fidesz, the Lithuanian Order and Justice, IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement, the Dutch Party for Freedom, Alternative for Germany and the German Freedom party.[138][139][140][141][142] In 2007, the party's then-only MEP was a member of the short-lived Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty grouping in the European Parliament.[138] Outside the EU, it has contacts with the Swiss People's Party,[143] the Israeli Likud,[144][145] and the United Russia party.[142] Likud has stated that it has not had contact with the FPÖ since the resignation of Strache as party leader.[146] Until 2010, it also had contacts with Tomislav Nikolić of the Serbian Progressive Party (formerly of the Serbian Radical Party),[128][142][147] Subsequently, the party had relations with the Serbian People's Party.[148]
At a conference in 2011, Strache and the new leader of the French National Front, Marine Le Pen, announced deeper cooperation between their parties.[149] Shortly thereafter, the FPÖ attempted to become a member of the Europe for Freedom and Democracy group, but was vetoed by some of its parties.[136] The party's two MEPs are individual members of the establishing European Alliance for Freedom.[150][151] After the 2014 European elections, the party joined the National Front, the Northern League, Vlaams Belang and the Czech Civic Conservative Party in forming the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom, and participated along with these parties, the Dutch Party for Freedom, the Alternative for Germany, the Polish Congress of the New Right and a former member of the UK Independence Party in the Europe of Nations and Freedom parliamentary group.[152]
(in German)
