The alarming comeback of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party

Aspectre is FPÖFPÖSPÖÖVP ÖVPÖVPFPÖÖVP FPÖ FPÖ SPÖ haunting —the prospect of a government led by Herbert Kickl, boss of the far-right Freedom Party (). According to a poll on March 11th for, a weekly, the is now comfortably the strongest party in the Alpine republic, with 31% of the vote, followed by the Socialists () at 25% and the centre-right Austrian People’s Party ()with 22%. If Austrians could vote directly for their chancellor, the poll showed it would be a tie between Mr Kickl and the ’s Karl Nehammer, the incumbent.The result of recent state elections in Lower Austria, formerly a fief of the , confirms the renaissance of the . The lost its absolute majority, scoring 40% of the vote, its worst result in decades, while the’sshare jumped from 15% to 24%. On March 5th voters in Carinthia, an stronghold and Mr Kickl’s home state, saw the party take its vote share from 23% in 2018 to 25%; the incumbent state governor’s lost nine percentage points.