Freedom Party Invited to Form New Government in Austria

The party won the parliamentary elections in September and now has the chance to take power after coalition talks by the previous governing party failed.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen (L) meets Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl (R) in Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 6, 2025. Leonhard Foeger/Reuters

Austria’s Freedom Party received a mandate to form a new government from the nation’s president on Jan. 6.

The right-wing anti-immigration and euroskeptic Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl, won the country’s parliamentary election in September 2024, taking 28.8 percent of the vote, knocking Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party into second place.