Austria embraces far-right party with Nazi roots, anti-Muslim stance

The far-right in Europe received another boost on Sunday with Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO) securing a “historic parliamentary election victory”.

The success of the EU-sceptic party in Austria follows recent electoral gains by far-right parties in Dutch, French, German and European Union elections.

FPO leader Herbert Kickle is both anti-immigration and anti-Islam. His electoral programme called “Fortress Austria” seeks to end political asylum entirely—a promise that breaches EU rules.

But what sets the FPO apart from many other far-right European parties is the apparent reluctance of its leadership to completely break away from its Nazi past.

For the first time in the Second Republic, which is another name for modern Austria that emerged as an independent country following its annexation by Germany during World War II, the far-right FPO is likely to lead the coalition government at the federal level.

Successor of the Nazi Party

The FPO was established in 1956 by Anton Reinthaller, a former officer of the dreaded SS—Schutzstaffel, or the Protection Squads—the elite corps of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party.

It is also an “indirect successor” of the Austrian Nazi party NSDAP, wrote Dr Walter Manoschek in his book titled The Haider Phenomenon in Austria, a compilation of scholarly work on the FPO’s long-time leader Jorg Haider.

Reinthaller served as minister of agriculture as well as an SS member following the incorporation of Austria into Germany in March 1938.

The close association of the FPO’s top leadership with the Nazis didn’t end with the demise of Reinthaller. The three candidates for the election of the second FPO chairman were all diehard Nazis.

For example, Hermann Neubacher served as mayor of Vienna in the Nazi era. Similarly, Lothar Rendulic was a former general of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945.

Friedrich Peter, who ultimately replaced Reinthaller, held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the SS hierarchy.

Peter was later revealed as a former member of the First SS Brigade, a unit responsible for the murder of thousands of civilians in the Soviet Union.

“All candidates, therefore, had a strong Nazi past,” said Dr Manoschek, a professor of political science at the University of Vienna.

He writes that the party extended support to a minority government in 1970 and, as a result, had as many as four former members of the Austrian Nazi party NSDAP appointed to key ministerial posts.

The FPO gained further prominence under the leadership of Haider who led the outfit from 1986 to 2000. He “manoeuvred skilfully between suggestions and plain speaking” with respect to the Nazi past of Austria.

With regard to the members of Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary organisation, the FPO leader commented that they were “decent individuals with character who stick to their beliefs despite strong opposition”.

Waffen-SS was condemned as a criminal organisation at the Nuremberg Trials, which were held in 1945-46 to indict former Nazi leaders as war criminals.

According to Dr Manoschek, Haider admired the “strength of character” and ideological loyalty of Waffen-SS members, insisting that Nazi concentration camps were, in fact, labour camps.

“[Haider’s] views are shared and supported by the FPO as a whole,” Dr Manoschek wrote.

Haider was far from the only FPO leader with an apparent tilt towards Nazism.

As for Nazi gas chambers, John Gudenus, another FPO leader and a member of the upper house of Austrian parliament, said: “Gas chambers? I am not going to get involved in that!”

Yet another FPO leader, Reinhard Gaugg, defined the letters in the word Nazi as “new, attractive, single-minded and ingenious.”

Anti-Muslim rhetoric

Central to the FPO’s identity in recent years has been its overt opposition to Islam and Muslim immigration.

The party's anti-Muslim rhetoric seems to have played a major role in its electoral success as the sentiment resonates with segments of the Austrian electorate concerned about cultural identity, national sovereignty and social cohesion.

On average, four anti-Muslim racist cases a day were documented in Austria during 2023, according to Dokustelle Austria, a civil society group that monitors racism against Muslims in the EU nation.

The number of hate crimes against Muslims in the last three months of 2023 was more than the combined figure for the January-September period. The civil rights monitor attributed the sharp increase in the number of cases to the “local impact of global phenomena” such as Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, which has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

Muslim immigrants became central targets of the FPO post-9/11, while the refugee crisis and growing concerns about terrorism and security in Europe also cemented the party’s anti-Muslim position.

The Freedom Party stated in a position paper released in 2008 that the legal recognition of Islam be restricted to the Bosnian white Muslims who had been a part of Austria for a long time while other, newer immigrants should not have similar rights.

By the 2000s, the FPO began focusing more explicitly on Islam, portraying it as inherently incompatible with Western values and Austrian culture. The FPO capitalised on fears of cultural displacement and security concerns, framing Muslim immigration as a threat to Austria's social fabric.

One of the FPO's most significant moves in this regard was the successful push for a ban on full-face veils, which was implemented in Austria in 2017. The law, officially framed as a measure to promote integration and public security, was widely seen as targeting Muslim women. The FPO has also called for restrictions on the public funding of Islamic organisations and for increased surveillance of mosques and Muslim associations, arguing that they are breeding grounds for extremism.

The party has also taken a “hard-line position” against Türkiye’s bid for EU membership.

Against immigration

The FPO has played a main role in shaping Austria’s national discourse on immigration, positioning itself as a defender of Austrian identity and sovereignty in the face of what it portrays as an existential threat posed by immigration.

During the 1990s, Austria faced an influx of immigrants from the Balkans due to the Yugoslav wars. That was when the FPO started framing immigration as a threat to Austrian jobs, social services and cultural values.

Austria is one of the countries that receive the most refugees per capita within the EU. But the far right is promising to “stop the right of asylum” and brandishing the racist theory of the “great replacement”.

One of the FPO’s most potent themes is defending Austria’s national and cultural identity. Party leaders frequently invoke the idea that Austria’s identity is rooted in its “Christian heritage” and European traditions which, they argue, are threatened by immigration from countries with different religious and cultural backgrounds.

The FPO has also successfully linked immigration to concerns about national security and crime. Its rhetoric intensified during the refugee crisis of 2015, when Austria, like many other European countries, saw a significant influx of asylum seekers, many of whom were fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

EU sanctions

In 2000, the FPO entered Austria’s federal government for the first time as a coalition partner with the Austrian People's Party (OVP), provoking international outrage.

The European Union imposed diplomatic sanctions on Austria for bringing a far-right party into the coalition government.

While the FPO was careful not to openly endorse anti-Semitism, its use of coded language and dog whistles resonated with elements of the far-right sections of Austrian society.

After Haider’s departure from the FPO in 2005, Heinz-Christian Strache took over as the party’s leader. Strache himself was dogged by controversy. In 2012, photos surfaced of him attending a gathering where he wore a blue cornflower, a symbol associated with Austrian Nazis.

In 2018, Udo Landbauer, an FPO politician, resigned after it was revealed that a fraternity he belonged to had distributed songbooks containing anti-Semitic lyrics.

In 2017, the FPO entered into another coalition government with the OVP party. But the coalition once again reignited global concerns about the normalisation of far-right politics in Austria.

The FPO’s second stint in government was cut short in 2019 over corruption allegations.