On a recent trip to Brussels, Austrian interim Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg implored European Union leaders to keep their cool and refrain from assuming the worst as the far-right Freedom Party, or FPO, inched closer to political power in Vienna.
“Austria is and will remain a reliable, constructive and strong partner in the European Union and around the world,” the veteran politician said during his brief visit on Jan. 13. His comments came as Herbert Kickl, the FPO’s wily and unassuming leader, announced that coalition talks with Schallenberg’s party, the center-right Austrian People’s Party, or OVP, had cleared an early hurdle by reaching an agreement on how to bring the country’s budget deficit below the 3 percent maximum mandated by the EU. Should the two sides continue to power through negotiations and form a government with Kickl at its head, it would be the first time that a far-right party has headed a government in Austria since World War II.
Schallenberg’s trip to Brussels was necessary, as the arrival of the FPO in power would not only herald a new era in modern Austrian politics. It would also undermine support for Ukraine—Kickl is critical of the EU’s sanctions against Russia—and bolster Europe’s rising far-right parties, which are sitting at the gates of power from Germany to Czechia, further threatening the EU’s fundamental values.