Austria's far-right Freedom Party is set to be invited to form a government after the country's conservative and social democrat parties failed to agree a coalition. What makes the Freedom Party so appealing to voters? Political scientist Natascha Strobl speaks with DW.
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00:00For some analysis now, let's talk to Natascha Strobl.
00:03She is a political scientist and an expert on right-wing extremism.
00:07Welcome to DW News.
00:09So what do you make of the fact that voices within the Austrian Conservative Party aren't
00:14as loud as they used to be, as the president put it, with regards to blocking a coalition
00:19with the Freedom Party?
00:21Well, it's not surprising because it's the same game they always played in the last elections,
00:29where they were very stout on no coalition with the Freedom Party.
00:33But when push comes to shove, they always formed a coalition with the Freedom Party.
00:38So it's not surprising, still very disappointing, because their whole election campaign was
00:45we want to prevent Herbert Kickl from becoming the Chancellor of Austria.
00:50All right.
00:51So the Freedom Party topped the poll during the last parliamentary elections.
00:56So what makes them so appealing to voters in Austria?
01:01Well, they have the same playbook basically as every other right-wing party in Europe
01:08or the US has.
01:10They use the frustration, the very real frustration of people, and try to put it into racism,
01:20into culture wars, into anti-corona prevention and so on.
01:27So the whole frustration people feel gets a home with the Freedom Party.
01:35And that's, of course, also because the other parties are too preoccupied with themselves
01:42to see how frustrated people really are.
01:45All right.
01:46Well, you've mentioned it there, that this is it's not just the case in Austria.
01:50Of course, many countries across Europe, Hungary, one of Austria's neighbors, of course,
01:55Italy, Germany, and several others are seeing this rise in support for right-wing political
02:00parties.
02:01You've touched on it there, but why are they so successful and how are they actually accessing
02:08the people?
02:09And what is it that really seems to resonate with so many people?
02:12Well, I always say the strength of the far right is the weakness of all the other democratic
02:19parties.
02:20So you have to see how they interact with each other.
02:25And we live in crisis after crisis after crisis.
02:29And the right-wing parties offer an alternative.
02:33Of course, it's an authoritarian alternative.
02:36It's an alternative where people are excluded.
02:40But it is an alternative.
02:42And that's what there should be more of, democratics, solidarity and so on.
02:49The status quo is because people are really fed up with the status quo.
02:54And that's what democratic parties don't seem to realize.
02:58And so the far right is on the rise.
03:02And it's particularly on the rise as well in certain demographics, right?
03:06Because we've seen younger voters, more and more of that younger demographic are voting
03:11for the far right.
03:13Why is that?
03:16Well, younger voters used to be far more progressive and they still are.
03:23But it's the female younger voters who are more progressive than their male counterparts.
03:28So we see this whole gender gap, especially with young people.
03:33And there's a whole lot of issues in there, a loss of identity.
03:40What does it mean to be a young male nowadays and so on?
03:45But very important is the economic issues.
03:50So will I be able to have a family, to have the house, to have the car and the vacations,
03:58all the things that matter to every generation before?
04:02And it seems less and less likely that people will actually achieve this sort of life.
04:08And this leads to frustration.
04:11And we see it, especially in young people, that it's not even, they cannot even think
04:17that it is possible for them to achieve some sort of basic wealth within society.
04:26Very interesting speaking to you, Natasha.
04:27Political scientist, Natasha Strobl, thank you for joining us on DW News today.
04:32Thank you so much.