Austria|The Freedom Party of Austria has come under scrutiny because of its ties to Russia.
in Austria will be voted on today, Sunday, in the parliamentary elections, which, according to forecasts, can lead the far-right to an election victory. The anti-immigration and pro-Russia Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) can become the largest party in the elections.
The Freedom Party has been around for a long time was the most popular party in opinion polls. Almost 30 percent support has been measured for it.
The Freedom Party is in charge Accused of being a Putinist in Austria Herbert Kicklwho had to resign as interior minister in 2019 as a result of the Russia scandal directed at the previous party leader.
Assembling a government under the leadership of the Freedom Party is considered either impossible or extremely difficult in practice.
As the elections approach, the centre-right Austrian People’s Party has tightened its grip on the Freedom Party’s lead in opinion polls. The social democrats have been third in the measurements.
The coalition government of the centre-right People’s Party and the Greens is currently in power. The chancellor is the leader of the People’s Party Karl Nehammer.
Freedom Party has become known especially for its anti-immigration.
In its party programme, it line among other things, that foreigners convicted of crimes should be deported to their home country. In addition, the party election program according to which the right to asylum should be reviewed periodically.
The party’s relationship with Russia and the war in Ukraine has also attracted attention.
In its election program, the party considers that the anti-neutrality attitude in the Ukraine war has harmed Austria more than Russia. The object of criticism in Ukraine policy is above all the European Union, towards which the party has a critical attitude anyway.
Some people outside of Austria may also remember the Freedom Party from the time when 14 EU countries froze its bilateral relations with Austria because of it. The boycott continued for seven months in 2000, when the long-time leader of the Freedom Party Jörg Haider had been able to raise his party from a minor party to a major political force and part of the government.
In the year 2019, the then chairman of the Freedom Party Heinz-Christian Strache had to resign as a result of the uproar in Russia. The reason was a video filmed secretly in Ibiza, in which Strache appeared to be ready to take bribes from a woman posing as a relative of a Russian oligarch.
Kickl also had to leave the position of interior minister due to the commotion. The then chancellor Sebastian Kurz considered that he would not be able to supervise investigations into his own party’s wrongdoings.
In the end, all the ministers of the Freedom Party left the government. Kurz, on the other hand, received a vote of no confidence.
Online magazine Politico by As a result of Kickli’s term as interior minister, the intelligence services stopped sharing information with Austria. Before this, the police had confiscated a data bank from the headquarters of the Austrian intelligence service BVT, which contained secret information exchange with Western intelligence services.
Suomen Supo also feared in 2018 that information shared with Austrian intelligence would leak to Russia. Kickl, the leader of the Freedom Party, served as interior minister at the time.
Last spring from Austrian intelligence the biggest spy scandal in decades was revealed. It turned out that there was a cell operating in the intelligence, which is believed to have shared information directly with a spy recruited by Russia.
Kickl became the leader of the Freedom Party in 2021. In the following years, among other things, the party criticized the restrictions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
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