Austria’s far-right Free Party FPÖ for the first time in its history won the first place in the elections for the emergence of the federal parliament with a percentage of 29.1% according to the first estimates of the state television and creates a new political landscape, with unpredictable developments for Austria.

The first statements of their representatives who spoke of “victory of the people against the establishment and many hostile media” were enthusiastic.

In second place mwith a drop of more than 11 points and a percentage of 26.3% the Christian Democrats of the People’s Party (ÖVP) of the current chancellor, Karl Nehammer. A significant drop for the co-ruling Greens as well, who fell to fifth place with 8.7%, about 5 points below their result in 2019. Third is the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) with 20.9% and fourth is the Liberal NEOS with 8.8%.

The Communist Party touched his entry into the Parliament with a percentage of 2.5%, but did not manage to overcome the electoral threshold of 3% required, while Dominik Blazny’s Beer Party, which had gathered 8.3% as a candidate in the 2022 presidential elections in the end it did not live up to the initial polls and remained at 2.1%.

Based on these results, the distribution of seats in the 183-seat Parliament will be as follows:

  • FPÖ: 57,
  • ÖVP:51,
  • SPÖ:40,
  • NEOS:18,
  • Greens: 17

The formation of a government is a puzzle

The formation of a government seems to prove to be a difficult puzzle, since all the possible schemes that will secure a majority of 92 seats have their “pros”, but their “cons” are more similar. Herbert Kickl has emphasized that he will demand the chancellorship, but the only party that could, based on experience, work with him is the center-right ÖVP, which, however, has stated that it will not accept him as chancellor.

It is the first time in history that the FPÖ has won first place, and the first time that the two previously major parties SPÖ and ÖVP together do not exceed 50%. It remains to be seen if after the official count they will remain with a total of 91 seats below the marginal government majority of 92 seats. However, the experience of similar coalitions from the past has not left the best memories for the citizens of the country, while it is estimated that it would inflate more the sails of the Liberals, who would assume the role of the opposition as the winners of the elections. However, the NEOS representatives also expressed their readiness to participate in a government for the first time.

Difficult negotiations

The country thus enters an unprecedented phase and it is expected with interest to see the tactics that the parties will follow in the coming weeks and months. In the last election, it took about three months of negotiations before the Christian Democrats and Greens finally agreed on a government program.

The participation was higher than in the last elections of 2019 and exceeded 75%, indicative of the huge importance of this electoral battle, which gathered a lot of interest from the entire European press. It is typical that six out of ten Austrians think that things in the country are not going well.