The far-right is on the verge of gaining power in Austria: the EU holds its breath

euronews (in English)

FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, who has been tasked with forming a coalition government, is opposed to sanctions against Russia, advocates for the remigration of foreigners and rejects the European Green Deal.

Transcript

00:00The Freedom Party of Austria was commissioned by the Austrian President to form a government.

00:12Its leader, Herbert Kickel, does not hide his ambitions to become the next Volkskanzler,

00:16meaning Chancellor of the People, a term used by the Nazis to designate Adolf Hitler.

00:24The potential arrival of the far right in Austria could disturb the EU and threaten

00:27military support to Kiev.

00:29At a time when the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump's return to the White House are calling

00:34for collective action.

00:35They are definitely very much against the sanctions against Russia.

00:43They feel this is hurting Austrian interests.

00:46They are against sending weapons to Ukraine, even apart from Austrian neutrality.

00:52And they would like to see the earliest possible end of the war, regardless of what this means

01:00The rejection of immigration is one of the FPÖ's flagship projects, which advocates

01:04closure of borders, rejection of the right to asylum, and relocation and re-migration

01:08of foreigners in order to guarantee a homogenous society.

01:12FPÖ radically rejected the asylum pact, basically they say it's hopeless, we will not solve

01:18this issue on the European level, we have to solve it on the Austrian level, basically.

01:23And they basically want to re-nationalize migration policy.

01:28Opposed to the European Green Deal, which he calls climate communism, Herbert Kickl

01:32could support a rollback in environmental standards in Europe.

01:35On the European side, the FPÖ leader wants to transfer more competences to the member

01:40states without advocating a total exit from the EU.

01:44They say they will not promote Austria leaving the European Union, but they want to change

01:51the European Union.

01:52Essentially they want to return competences to the level of the member states that would

01:57like to reduce the influence of the European Commission.

02:01And they are talking about a Europe of sovereign states, basically.

02:07They would like to have a very inter-government type of Europe without strong supranational

02:13institutions.

02:15The FPÖ arrived first in the federal elections in September with more than 28% of the votes.

02:21Efforts to block it have failed.

02:24Now forced to make up a coalition government, probably with the conservatives, the FPÖ

02:28will have to dilute its policies.

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