“Winner, what now?”, headlines the daily Kurier, because no one wants to ally themselves with this 55-year-old politician considered far too radical: carrying an illiberal and anti-European agenda, he is opposed to sanctions against Russia.
Faced with this barrier, he could experience the same fate as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, who had to give up his ambitions as Prime Minister, or as the French National Rally (RN), pushed aside by the Republican front.
By obtaining 28.8% of the vote ahead of the conservatives, Herbert Kickl did better than his predecessors, Jörg Haider and Heinz-Christian Strache.
The ball is now in the court of the President of the Republic, Alexander Van der Bellen, from the environmentalists.
“Tradition dictates that he gives the mandate to the party that came first,” recalls Andreas Eisl, researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute.
But he did not hide his reluctance towards Herbert Kickl and warned: the government must obtain the support of a majority of 92 deputies, and not call into question either the foundations of democracy, nor Austria’s commitments to the foreigner.
The head of state also has the power to entrust the task to the conservatives of the ÖVP (26.3%), even if they record the heaviest defeat in their history.
A new formula could emerge according to this analyst, with “a tripartite coalition” combining the ÖVP, the social democrats of the SPÖ (21.1%) and the small liberal party Neos (9.2%).
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