"Krone" commentary

Austria is facing a turning point

Analyzes for the "Krone": domestic policy expert Claus Pándi

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

After the political total loss, Herbert Kickl is about to take power and we will have to say goodbye to the old Austria as we knew it.

Karl Nehammer's promise that there would be no "business as usual" has inadvertently become the legacy of the last ÖVP chancellor.

The FPÖ is facing a devastated field: the economic outlook is bleak, the mood is low. The SPÖ is burnt out, the ÖVP, once the party of the upper middle classes, is humbly facing its transition into a junior partnership. The Greens have catapulted themselves out of the real zone of influence as arrogant nuisances. The NEOS are not a factor either. And the Federal President can only follow the power of the factual.

Alone in the wide open
The Freedom Party is therefore alone in the field and, following its triumphant march through the federal states, has also arrived at the center of power. The very party that has long seen itself as a victim of higher forces has now arrived at the top of the system itself.

Nobody knows yet how Kickl will react to the rejections he has probably perceived as insults with his new opportunities. Will he be as robust as Viktor Orbán, or will he take his cue from Giorgia Meloni, who comes across as so velvety pawed that even skeptics look enamored?

Either way, Austria is on the brink of a new era. We just don't know yet whether it's going sharply forwards or slowly backwards.