(30 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vienna, Austria – 29 September 2024
1. Herbert Kickl, leader of far-right Freedom Party (FPO) arriving with supporters cheering
2. SOUNDBITE: (German) Herbert Kickl, leader of Freedom Party:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND OVERLAID SHOT3++
"For one thing, we have made party history. Yes, Jörg Haider’s famous 26.9%. I think he will forgive us for jumping over it today. On the contrary, he would even be proud of us."
3. Wide of Kickl on stage
4. SOUNDBITE: (German) Herbert Kickl, leader of Freedom Party:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND OVERLAID SHOT5++
"I am rarely at a loss for words. But today I’m finding it a bit difficult. Yes, and for a very, very positive reason. I can’t tell you how happy I am about this result. What we have achieved is beyond my wildest dreams. Thank you for that."
5. Kickl celebrating on stage with party members
6. SOUNDBITE: (German) Herbert Kickl, leader of Freedom Party:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND OVERLAID SHOT7++
"We have, we have internalized this, we feel encouraged and we will not deviate from this path. This 29% is an encouragement for us to continue along this path, which we have taken together so far, with even greater intensity. That is my promise on this election night."
7. Party members celebrating Herbert Kickl and shouting "Herbert! Herbert!"
STORYLINE:
The Freedom Party scored the first far-right win in a national parliamentary election in post-World War II Austria on Sunday.
Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and long-time campaign strategist who has led the Freedom Party since 2021, was welcomed by his supporters with cheers and applause.
"We have opened the door to a new era. We are now really going to write this new chapter in Austrian history together" Kickl said, addressing his supporters.
The party finished ahead of the governing conservatives after tapping into voters’ anxieties about immigration, inflation, Ukraine and other issues, a projection showed. But its chances of governing were unclear.
A projection for ORF public television, based on counting of over 90% of the votes, put support for the Freedom Party at 28.9% and Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party at 26.3%.
The center-left Social Democrats were in third place with 21%. The outgoing government — a coalition of Nehammer’s party and the environmentalist Greens — lost its majority in the lower house of parliament.
Party leader Herbert Kickl wants to be chancellor. But to become Austria’s new leader, he would need a coalition partner to command a parliamentary majority. Rivals have said they won’t work with Kickl in government.
"I had the feeling during the discussions with the others, I don’t know, they were in a bit of a state of shock and acted as if this election hadn’t happened. I’ll give them another two or three days to think about it. Then let’s hope they come to their senses. It would also be in their own interests, I would like to say now.", Kickl said during the party’s celebration.
In its election program, titled “Fortress Austria,” the Freedom Party calls for “remigration of uninvited foreigners,” for achieving a more “homogeneous” nation by tightly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum via an emergency law.
The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to bow out of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defense project launched by Germany.
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