Austrian voters handed a first ever general election victory to the far-right Freedom Party on Sunday, vote projections showed, illustrating rising support for hard-right parties in Europe fueled by concern over immigration levels.
The Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO held a slim lead in opinion polls for months over Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP) in a campaign dominated by immigration and worries about the economy.
The FPO, which wants to stop granting asylum altogether and build a “fortress Austria” preventing migrants from entering, was initially led by a former Nazi lawmaker in the 1950s.
It has sought to moderate its image, but new controversy about its past surfaced at the weekend, when a video published by newspaper Der Standard showed members of the party attending a funeral where a song popular with the Nazi SS was sung.
A Jewish student group in Vienna then filed a complaint against FPO members accusing them of breaching anti-Nazi laws. The FPO did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
This is what happens when leftist orgs are gutted, the far-right just walks in unimpeded.
Gross.
