Mario Kunasek of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPOE) is pictured after regional elections in Graz, Austria on November 24, 2024. (Photo by Erwin Scheriau / APA / AFP)
Vienna: The far right won an Austrian regional election by landslide on Sunday, securing its grip on the Alpine country after a historic victory in the legislative ballot in late September.
The Freedom Party (FPOe) secured 35 percent of the vote in the southeastern state of Styria, up by 17 percent on the 2019 results.
They defeated the conservatives with a score of 26.8 percent and the social-democrats with 21.1 percent, according to the final results aired by broadcaster ORF.
The vote marks the first time the far right comes out victorious in the region, which is currently ruled by left- and right-wing parties.
A former defence minister between December 2017 and May 2019, FPOe candidate Mario Kunasek's campaign focused on anti-immigration rhetoric and defending car owners.
Kunasek, a 48-year-old army veteran, will hold talks with other political parties to try and form a majority, which would lift him into the top job of province governor.
But before the vote, the conservatives and social-democrats had made clear their intention to renew their alliance.
as they lack enough seats between them, they will need to find a third coalition partner -- likely the Greens or the liberals.
If he did succeed in becoming governor, Kunasek would be the first far-right politician to do so since the late Jorg Haider, who took the prestigious role in 1989.
The head of the FPOe at the federal level, radical politician Herbert Kickl, commended the party's "historic" success, amplifying a "wave of renewal".
After this "major slap for the parties of the system", Kickl called for the will of the voters to be respected in Styria and across Austria.
Although it is the strongest group in parliament, the FPOe has so far been left out of talks led by outgoing conservative chancellor Karl Nehammer to form a government.
