Austrian far-right leader Kickl within reach of power as party expected to win elections

VIENNA – Austria’s sharp-tongued far-right leader Herbert Kickl does not exactly cut a dashing figure but he has skilfully tapped voter anxieties over migration, the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Neither as charismatic as the Freedom Party’s (FPOe) former leader Joerg Haider nor as bullish as his predecessor, Mr Heinz-Christian Strache, Mr Kickl has made his career largely behind the scenes as the party’s long-time ideologue.

But under 55-year-old marathon runner and climber, the party has rapidly regained ground lost after a string of corruption scandals and is expected to win Sept 29’s national elections.

Since taking charge in 2021, the FPOe has risen in the polls to about 27 per cent – sharply up from 18 per cent three years ago.

Buoyed by discontent over soaring inflation, Mr Kickl has profited from the plummeting popularity of the ruling coalition of conservatives and Greens.

And on Ukraine, he has criticised EU sanctions against Moscow, and said Austria should remain neutral.

In June’s European elections, the FPOe topped the poll for the first time nationally, taking more than a quarter of the vote.

Austria’s ‘rudest politician’

A professional politician, Mr Kickl studied philosophy, history, communication and political science before starting to work for the FPOe in 1995.

But little is known about his private life and he has maintained a low profile, with voters warming to his tidy and trustworthy demeanour, in contrast to his flamboyant predecessors.

But his bland, unassuming image contrasts with his virulent rhetoric, which he expertly employs against political opponents, slamming President Alexander Van der Bellen as a “senile mummy”.

“He is the rudest politician in the country,” journalist Nina Horaczek, who analysed Mr Kickl’s speeches in a book published this year, told AFP.

“It’s a way of discrediting those who think differently,” she added.

However, Mr Kickl has also avoided debates and interviews, denouncing the media for their “lack of objectivity”.

He declined AFP’s request for an interview.

Instead, he has relied on social media. The FPOe sparked fury last year with a video espousing an extremist conspiracy theory that white Europeans are being replaced by migrants.

It also featured the Vienna balcony where Adolf Hitler gave his speech when he returned to his homeland in triumph after the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938.

‘People’s chancellor’

The FPOe was founded by former Nazis, and Mr Kickl has frequently employed terms reminiscent of the party’s troubled past, including calling himself the future “Volkskanzler” – the people’s chancellor – as Hitler was termed in the 1930s.

“It’s a well-targeted provocation with two aims – to get people talking and to send very clear signals” to the party’s most radical fringes, said Ms Horaczek.

Mr Kickl denies that “Volkskanzler” is a Nazi reference, insisting that several politicians had claimed the term for themselves in the past.

But the far-right leader has never made a secret of his closeness to extremist groups, expressing his support for the Identitarian Movement as early as 2016.

He has also espoused the far-right concept of “remigration” that calls for expelling people of non-European ethnic backgrounds who are deemed to have failed to integrate.

In 2018, during his time as interior minister, Mr Kickl oversaw a controversial raid on the country’s secret service, where documents on the links between the FPOe and extremist circles were seized.

And in April, prosecutors launched a corruption investigation against him amid claims that public money was embezzled to pay for advertisements in return for alleged favourable coverage.

Last year, Mr Kickl appeared on posters in his home region of Carinthia dressed in a green parka jacket with military overtones alongside the slogan “Fortress Austria – closing borders, guaranteeing security”.

For the upcoming national elections, he has changed into a suit, but has kept the slogan. AFP