Herbert Kickl is now the face of Austria’s far right, triumphing in the parliamentary elections with around 29% of the vote. This success marks a historic turning point, even if his access to the chancellery remains uncertain due to the absence of coalition partners.
An atypical leader
Unlike his predecessors such as Jörg Haider or Heinz-Christian Strache, Herbert Kickl is distinguished neither by photogenic charisma nor by his oratorical talents. This former Minister of the Interior and MP for the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) above all established himself as an eminence grise within the party, before taking the head of the movement in 2021. Under his leadership, the FPÖ rose from 18% to around 29%, capitalizing on economic frustrations and controversies around the pandemic.
A controversial style
Herbert Kickl is especially noted for his outrageous language and his virulent attacks against his opponents. His meetings, described as veritable café-theatre shows, are punctuated with provocations. He does not hesitate to caricature his adversaries, going so far as to call a Green elected official a “dominatrix SM” or to describe the Austrian president as a “senile mummy”.
Despite his provocative style, Kickl attracts voters with his image as a tidy politician without personal scandal, a stark contrast to the instability that has often marked the Austrian far right.
Kickl gained popularity by adopting a conspiratorial line in the face of restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, which allowed it to appeal to anti-vaccines and other skeptics of health measures. He has also advocated strict neutrality on the war in Ukraine, opposing any support for kyiv after Russia invades in 2022, a speech that resonates with part of the Austrian electorate.
A historical legacy and deliberate provocations
Coming from a party founded by former Nazis, Herbert Kickl does not hesitate to use terms with historical connotations. He describes himself as a “Volkskanzler” (people’s chancellor), an expression taken from Nazi vocabulary. Although he refutes any direct allusion to Hitler’s regime, he does not hide his links with small extremist groups and has often made speeches against immigration and Islam.
In 2016, he moved closer to the identitarians, and he has since popularized the concept of “remigration”, aimed at expelling Austrian citizens of foreign origin.
Controversies with the media
It has also been at the heart of legal controversies. While Minister of the Interior, he is said to have ordered advertisements paid for by the State in a large press group to guarantee favorable coverage for his party. In 2023, he posed in paramilitary uniform on campaign posters with the slogan “Fortress Austria”, a clear message on his vision of immigration policy.
If Herbert Kickl succeeded in making the FPÖ a key player in Austrian politics, its ability to form a government remains in question. His provocative rhetoric and extremist positions are deeply divisive, both nationally and internationally. However, its rise reflects a broader trend of rising populism in Europe, supported by anti-system and nationalist discourses.
