Austria's far-right Freedom Party promises 'new era' after election win

euronews (in English)

A projection for ORF public television, based on counting of over 90% of the vote, showed the Freedom Party finishing first with 29.2%.

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00:00The Freedom Party has secured the first parliamentary election victory for a far-right party in post-WWII Austria.

00:09A projection for ORF Public Television showed the party finishing first with 29.2%.

00:16That win pushed Chancellor Carl Nahammer's Austrian People's Party into second place with 26.5%.

00:23Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl said it was a piece of history that we have written together today.

00:29We have internalized this, we feel strengthened and we will not leave this path.

00:34These 29% are a reinforcement for us.

00:38This path that we have taken together so far with even greater intensity.

00:43But to become Austria's new leader, Kickl needs a coalition partner to command a parliamentary majority and that might be tricky.

00:51He said he's open to negotiate with other parties, but so far his rivals, including Nahammer and Social Democrats leader Andreas Babler, have said they won't work with the far-right.

01:03Speaking in Vienna, outgoing Chancellor Carl Nahammer said it was bitter that his party lost, but his position towards Kickl hadn't changed.

01:12With Herbert Kickl, who believes in conspiracy theories, the WHO as the next world government and the meeting in Davos as a preparatory meeting for the world leadership,

01:20you can't make a state so reasonable and responsible.

01:25The Freedom Party's win sparked protests outside the parliament building in Vienna with demonstrators holding placards with slogans including,

01:33Kickl is a Nazi.

01:35The far-right has benefited from frustration over high inflation, the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic and has also built on worries about migration.

01:45The final official results will be published later in the week after a small number of remaining postal ballots have been counted.

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