You may like it or not, but the FPÖ’s radicalised course has been successful with voters in an unequal competition. So why should they now be protected from suffering a crushing defeat in government negotiations?
Do you also believe that we are being quietly and secretly controlled by a “dictatorship” of the World Health Organization? That undefined “globalists” are secretly carrying out a population exchange? That horse worming medication would have been an adequate response to the corona pandemic? Do you have to leave a parliamentary session if the president of a state invaded by Russia is connected to give a speech? Or would you be in favor of a group of people smaller than the population of Graz being able to initiate a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty?
This is (also) what the contemporary FPÖ stands for, or has stood for in recent years. And you can think it’s good or not, dangerous or harmless; it is a fact that quite a lot of people seem to approve of it. Or at least they don’t find it outrageous enough to deny the FPÖ their support. Two weeks before the election, pollsters see Kickl’s party cemented as the clear favorite, and the EU election showed that this assessment is not entirely unfounded – when the Blues, even with a top candidate with the charisma of a second-tier official, came first in what is traditionally a difficult election for them.
