The Social Democrats (SPÖ) were the victors of the regional elections in the eastern Austrian state of Burgenland on Sunday, January 19th, meaning immigration hardliner Hans-Peter Doskozil will likely continue his tenure as the state governor. His willingness to cooperate with the anti-globalist Freedom Party (FPÖ) is yet another signal that the cordon sanitaire surrounding the party is slowly breaking apart.
The Social Democrats, who are traditionally embedded in the state as the dominant political force, and have led the governments of Burgenland for the past six decades, enjoyed another victory in the state, receiving 46.4% of the votes.
This will not be enough to secure a majority in the state parliament, so the party will have to reach a coalition deal with either one of the other three parties—the FPÖ, the Greens, or the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP).
For the first time in its history, the Freedom Party came second in Burgenland, receiving 23.1% of the votes, a 13-point increase compared to its result five years ago. The allure of the party is growing all around the country as it taps into voter dissatisfaction with the mainstream parties.
With its tough anti-immigration rhetoric and its opposition to radical climate policies, the FPÖ managed to win its first national election last September, finished in a strong second place in the state of Vorarlberg in October, and achieved another historic victory in Styria in November.
It can now hope to revive a coalition with the SPÖ in Burgenland, which the two parties had been in between 2015 and 2020.
A partnership between the left-wing and the right-wing would seem out of place in most of Europe, but not just Austria, especially with Doskozil distancing himself from the federal party leadership, and is associated with a shift to the right within the party. Though he remains a leftist on social policies, he has advocated for more spending on defence, and pushed to limit immigration to Europe.
Despite pressure by the central party leadership not to do so, Doskozil hasn’t ruled out returning to a coalition with the FPÖ, but could also choose a different partner this time around. Asked in an interview after Sunday’s election about his preference, he said he was willing to work with anyone. He could find common ground with the FPÖ on asylum and migration, and with the Greens on energy policy, he added.
An SPÖ-FPÖ coalition in Burgenland would be another crack in the ‘firewall’—the cordon sanitaire—that has been put in place around the FPÖ by the other parties. The ÖVP recently decided to abandon its refusal to cooperate with the anti-globalist party on a federal level, paving the way for a right-wing government to be formed in Vienna.
The embrace of the FPÖ by the centre-right could have far-reaching implications in the rest of Europe, especially Germany, where the second most popular party, the anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland is still vilified and isolated for being ‘extremist.’
