Far-right party hopes for win as Austria votes

Chancellor Karl Nehammer at a polling station. Pic/AFP

Austrians voted on Sunday in a national election that the far-right Freedom Party is hoping to win for the first time, tapping into anxieties about immigration, inflation, Ukraine and other concerns following recent gains for the hard right elsewhere in Europe.

Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and longtime campaign strategist who has led the Freedom Party since 2021, wants to become Austria's new chancellor.

He has used the term "Volkskanzler", or chancellor of the people, which was used by the Nazis to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Kickl has rejected the comparison.

But to become Austria's new leader, he would need a coalition partner to command a majority.

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