Austrian far-right victory foreshadows dystopia for Muslim population

Middle East Eye

26-01-2025

It is a historical novelty.
For the first time since the end of the Nazi regime, the leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) - a political party that was established by ex-Nazis for ex-Nazis, and that has grown to become a major force in Austrian politics since the early 1990s - has the chance to not only join a government as a partner but to actually lead the government, with its party leader becoming the future chancellor.
This happened three months after the party emerged as the main victor in the national parliamentary elections and the collapse of coalition talks among the conservatives, Social Democrats, and liberals.
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My first and only encounter with Herbert Kickl, the current leader of the far-right FPO, took place in 2009. At the time, he was the party's general secretary, and we debated the Swiss minaret ban during a live TV broadcast.
Kickl was the brainchild of some of the first anti-Muslim slogans the party adopted following its stark focus on Islam in 2005
Unlike many other far-right politicians from his party whom I've debated over the years, Kickl stood out.
Most of them, while espousing controversial views, maintained a level of personal approachability, and their positions seemed calculated rather than deeply held.
Kickl, however, was different.
His rhetoric felt deeply personal, laced with a palpable disdain - if not outright hatred - towards Muslims, accompanied by calls for discriminatory policies.
'Unprecedented triumph'
Since the FPO's coalition with the conservatives collapsed in 2019 due to a corruption scandal, Kickl successfully resurrected the party, surpassing its previous electoral successes.
As a former speechwriter for the infamous long-time FPO leader Jorg Haider and later a minister of the interior from 2017 to 2019 during the coalition with Sebastian Kurz's Austrian People's Party (OVP), Kickl has now fully emerged as the party's leader.
He was the brains behind some of the first anti-Muslim slogans the party adopted following its stark focus on targeting Islam and Muslims in 2005.
An election campaign poster of far-right Freedom Party (FPO) leader Heinz-Christian Strache reads "Islamisation must be stopped", is pictured in Hall in Tirol, Austria, on 11 October 2017 (Dominic Ebenbichler/Reuters)
A talented writer, he came up with campaign slogans such as "Daham statt Islam" (At home instead of Islam) and "Mehr Mut für unser Wiener Blut" (More courage for our Viennese blood), playing with remnants of Nazi vocabulary that have been forgotten for many Austrians.
Arguing that Islam has no home or place in Austria is what has marked the FPO's politics vis-a-vis Muslims since 2005. For the FPO, Muslims can only have a place if they become invisible as such.
Pro-Israel and 'antisemitic': Freedom Party of Austria tasked with forming government Read More »
The year 2024 marked an unprecedented triumph for the far right.
The FPO secured victories in both the European parliamentary elections in July and the national parliamentary elections on 29 September, with nearly 30 percent of the vote.
Despite the president's initial attempt to bypass the FPO by encouraging a coalition between the second-largest party, the OVP, and the Social Democrats (SPO), along with the liberal Neos party, these negotiations collapsed last week.
Indeed, every single party vowed not to build a coalition with the FPO. But given the collapse of negotiation talks, the president had no choice but to invite the FPO to form the government.
The conservative OVP, despite prior declarations to the contrary specifically criticising Kickl as the most radical leader, nevertheless chose to align with the FPO.
Widespread Islamophobia
What is on the horizon might best be understood if one looks back not so far in the past.
Under the previous coalition of the OVP and FPO (2017-2019), Muslims had already become the central scapegoat. New laws and political measures targeting Islam and Muslims surfaced almost monthly.
How Austria made the study of Islamophobia a crime Read More »
Mosques were shut down illegally, various hijab bans were imposed, Muslim educational institutions came under scrutiny, and the Documentation Centre for Political Islam was established to monitor Muslim associations, sometimes even leading to legal action against them.
Although courts, including the Constitutional Court, later overturned many of these measures and laws, their societal impact lingered.
A recent study by scholars from the University of Vienna found that 39 percent of respondents believed Christian and Muslim values were incompatible, and 31 percent supported restricting Muslim religious practices.
Even as the OVP, SPO, and the Neos were negotiating a potential coalition from September to January this year, they had already agreed on a new hijab ban, which shows the extent of widespread Islamophobia in Austria's political class.
A coalition between the FPO and the OVP under the leadership of the first, however, would likely push even further.
Both parties, especially the FPO, see Viktor Orban and his model of "illiberal democracy" as worth emulating, and his tight grip on media and the courts as exemplary.
In Styria, where the FPO recently won the elections and formed a coalition with the OVP, a hijab ban in public service was swiftly implemented.
Harsher policies
The FPO's election platform reveals broader ambitions: banning "political Islam", a euphemism for curbing Muslim civil society and public visibility, defunding Muslim associations, advocating for the "remigration" of Syrian and Afghan refugees, and intensifying the "fight against the hijab".
This includes further tightening the Islam Act of 2015, which governs the relationship between the state and the official Muslim Council that oversees mosques and religious services.
The regional leader of Austrian ÖVP in Lower Austria says that the party should negotiate with far-right FPÖ to avoid new elections, coming with policies to bring the economy forward and 'fight Islam'
Yes, she said: fight Islampic.twitter.com/PaXZgYu8AJ — Nassreddin 🍉 نصر الدين (@Nassreddin2002) January 6, 2025
The FPO's platform is explicit: "Radical Islam currently poses the greatest threat to the homogeneity of the people in the area of immigration. It not only competes with Christianity but also contradicts Austria's democratic values and freedoms. Therefore, Muslims, like all other immigrants, must conform to our culture and value system, avoiding the creation of parallel societies."
Kickl laid the groundwork for several raids against Muslims, notably Operation Luxor, an unlawful assault on Muslim civil society leaders
The statement perfectly sums up how the party conflates what it paints as "political Islam" with average Muslims.
During his tenure as minister of the interior, Kickl laid the groundwork for several raids against Muslims, notably Operation Luxor, an unlawful assault on Muslim civil society leaders that continues to resonate today.
He also raided his own secret service to remove the OVP's grip on it, which makes him particularly dangerous to the political establishment.
Back then, the FPO was a junior partner in a coalition. Now, as the senior partner, the FPO, under Kickl's leadership, is poised to implement even harsher anti-Muslim policies.
With Kickl at the helm, a new dystopia looms for the Muslim population in Austria.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.