Austria’s Far Right Wins Election but May Fall Short of Forming a Government

Austrian voters handed the Freedom Party of Austria a solid win in national elections on Sunday, rebuking establishment parties and notching another victory for a xenophobic party in Europe as the tide of far-right populism rises on the continent.

But despite the nearly 30 percent who voted for the far-right Freedom Party and its pugilistic leader, Herbert Kickl, the victory in national parliamentary elections could turn out to be merely symbolic, as mainstream parties have promised to form a coalition government without him.

Still, on Sunday Mr. Kickl, who campaigned on making Austria a “fortress of freedom,” insisted he has a clear mandate to form a government and announced that he would be open to conversations about possible coalitions with all other parties in Parliament. “Our hand is reached out to everybody,” he said on Sunday evening.

However, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, the head of the conservative People’s Party, quickly made clear that he would stand by his campaign promise not to build a government with Mr. Kickl, dashing any realistic hopes that the far-right party could come to power.

“It is the best result in the history of the Freedom Party and the first time it gets first place in a national council election,” said Peter Filzmaier, a political analyst, in a text exchange, referring to the Austrian Parliament. “However, without government participation, this is merely of great symbolic value.”

The Austrian election resembled a series of state elections this month in Eastern Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany won significantly in state house contests, only to be locked out of the government by other mainstream parties working together to exclude the party, which they say is a danger to democracy.