Leaders | Herbert Kickl and the hard right

The Putinisation of central Europe

Austria could soon get its most extreme chancellor since the 1940s

Chairman of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPOe) Herbert Kickl leaves after a meeting with Austrian Federal President Van der Bellen in Vienna, Austria
Photograph: EPA

HOW CONCERNED should Europe be at the rise of Herbert Kickl, the leader of Austria’s hard-right Freedom Party, the FPö? Following the collapse of attempts by the country’s centrist politicians to keep him out of power after his party came top at an election last September (though with only 29% of the vote), Mr Kickl now seems likely to become chancellor. The FPö has been in government before, as a junior partner. This time, it looks as though Mr Kickl will get the top job. That is bad news for the country: he has called for a “Fortress Austria” free from asylum-seekers and employs rhetoric with Nazi overtones. And it consolidates a worrying pattern of Russia-sympathisers gaining power across central Europe.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “The Putinisation of central Europe”

From the January 11th 2025 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Leaders

Four test tubes in the shape of human figures, connected hand in hand, partially filled with a blue liquid. A dropper adds some liquid to the last figure

How to improve clinical trials

Involving more participants can lead to new medical insights

Container ship at sunrise in the Red Sea

Houthi Inc: the pirates who weaponised globalisation

Their Red Sea protection racket is a disturbing glimpse into an anarchic world


Donald Trump will upend 80 years of American foreign policy

A superpower’s approach to the world is about to be turned on its head


Rising bond yields should spur governments to go for growth

The bond sell-off may partly reflect America’s productivity boom

Much of the damage from the LA fires could have been averted

The lesson of the tragedy is that better incentives will keep people safe