From 05:45 (local time) the polls gradually open in Austriawhere 6.3 million voters are invited to elect the 183 members of the National Council or the Lower House. Nine parties have candidates in all nine states, with far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) to lead in the polls throughout the election period, in which immigration, accuracy and the relationship with Russia prevailed. However, the formation of a government is not expected to be an easy task.

The last polls will close tonight at 17:00 (local time), when the first result prediction will be announced. In the latest polls, the FPÖ of Herbert Kickl was ahead with 27-29%, with the center-right People’s Party (ÖVP) of the chancellor Carl Nehammer to follow with 23-25% and the Socialist Party (SPÖ) of Andreas Babler with 20-21%. The NEOS liberals get between 8 and 11% and the co-governing Greens between 8 and 10%. The list of parties is completed with the Communist Party (KPÖ), which has not entered Parliament since the 1950s, the Party of Beer (BIER), the singer of the punk band Turbobier Domini Blazni or Marko Pogo, with a central position on the “depoliticization of politics”, the List of Madeleine Petrovich, a former Green executive who opposes support for Ukraine and “None of them” (KEINE), which aspires to attract voters who do not identify with any of the other parties.

If the FPÖ eventually finishes first, it will have recorded a historic victory for post-war Austria. The Freedom Party (FPÖ), which has been leading the polls since the end of 2022, also recently won the European elections, with restrictive proposals on immigration, questioning pandemic policy and closeness to Vladimir Putin. In the European Union it belongs to the same group as the Hungarian Prime Minister’s party Viktor Orban. His leader, Herbert Kickle, apprenticed to Jörg Haider in the 2000s, he is considered a genuine populist and self-proclaimed “anti-system”, while aspiring, he says, to be “the people’s chancellor”. The FPÖ has already co-governed as a “junior” partner twice with the ÖVP, but the controversial Kikl will not find it easy to secure a partner. To be excluded from the government, it is likely to require the cooperation of three parties.