The far-right Freedom Party has won the general election in Austria.
Led by Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister who was dismissed over the country’s Ibiza scandal, the party finished first ahead of the ruling conservatives, with the centre-left Social Democrats in third place.
However, despite this, the party’s chances of actually governing remain unclear.
Image: Herbet Kickl speaking in Vienna over the weekend. Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: Reuters
Preliminary official results showed the Freedom Party finishing with 29.2% of the vote, Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party second with 26.5% and the Social Democrats with 21%, according to a near-complete count reported by national public broadcaster ORF.
The outgoing government, a coalition of Mr Nehammer’s party and the Greens, lost its majority in the lower house of parliament.
Mr Kickl has said he wants to be chancellor, but to become Austria’s new leader he would need a coalition partner and rivals have said they will not work with him in government.
He has also drawn criticism for his use of the term “Volkskanzler,” or chancellor of the people, which was used by the Nazis to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
In its election programme, called Fortress Austria, the Freedom Party called for the “remigration of uninvited foreigners” to achieve a more “homogenous” nation.
The party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine, and wants to leave the European Sky Shield Initiative – a missile defence project launched by Germany.
Image: Pic: Reuters
In his closing campaign speech on Saturday, Mr Kickl claimed sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine were hurting Austria even more than Russia.
Speaking separately alongside other party leaders on ORF, he said: “We don’t need to change our position, because we have always said that we’re ready to lead a government, we’re ready to push forward this change in Austria side by side with the people.”
Mr Nehammer described Mr Kickl as a “security risk” for the country.
Along with other political leaders, he has said he would not form a coalition with Mr Kickl.
If the Freedom Party is unable to form a government, an alternative could be an alliance between the People’s Party and the Social Democrats – with or without the liberal Neos, who took 9% of the vote.
Who is Herbert Kickl?
After the Ibiza affair in 2019, 55-year-old Herbert Kickl became leader of the FPO in 2021.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Kickl attended anti-lockdown protests and called Israel’s mass vaccination campaign “health apartheid”.
He also refused to condemn those who likened lockdown measures to the Holocaust, despite Austria’s strict laws against antisemitism.
He rubbished claims that those making the comparison were trivialising the Nazi regime during an interview with Austrian news outlet ORF.
And in March last year, he and other FPO members left the Austrian parliament when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the chamber.
The far-right victory in Austria comes after similar successes elsewhere in Europe.
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose party dominates the Netherlands’ new government, congratulated the Freedom Party on social media.
As did co-leader of the Alternative for Germany Party (AfD), Alice Weidel, whose party won recent state elections for the first time.
At least 20 people have been killed and dozens more injured after an Israeli airstrike targeting a school in Gaza, health authorities have said.
Reuters news agency reported the number of dead, citing medics, with the school in the Daraj neighbourhood having been used to shelter displaced people who had fled previous bombardments.
Medical and civil defence sources on the ground confirmed women and children were among the casualties, with several charred bodies arriving at al Shifa and al Ahli hospitals.
The scene inside the school has been described as horrific, with more victims feared trapped under the rubble.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Donald Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions after a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine, as he said of Vladimir Putin: “What the hell happened to him?”
Speaking to reporters at an airport in New Jersey ahead of a flight back to Washington, Mr Trump said: “I’m not happy with Putin. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s killing a lot of people,” he added. “I’m not happy about that.”
Mr Trump – who said he’s “always gotten along with” Mr Putin – told reporters he would consider more sanctions against Moscow.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.
Ukraine said the barrage of strikes overnight into Sunday was the biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with 367 drones and missiles fired by Russian forces.
It came despite Mr Trump repeatedly talking up the chances of a peace agreement. He even spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for two hours last week.
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Hundreds of drones fired at Ukraine
‘Shameful’ attacks
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to sign a ceasefire deal, and suggested Russia isn’t serious about signing one.
In a statement after the latest attacks on his country, he urged the US and other national leaders to increase the pressure on Mr Putin, saying silence “only encourages” him.
Mr Trump’s envoy for the country, Keith Kellogg, later demanded a ceasefire, describing the Russian attacks as “shameful”.
Three children were among those killed in the attacks, explosions shaking the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Image: Ukrainian siblings Tamara, 12, Stanislav, eight, and Roman, 17, were killed in Russian airstrikes. Pic: X/@Mariana_Betsa
Before the onslaught, Russia said it had faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday. It said around 100 were intercepted and destroyed near Moscow and in central and southern regions.
The violence has escalated despite Russia and Ukraine completing the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each over the past three days.
Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.
It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.
But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.
Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.
The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.
Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.
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“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.
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12 May: US and China reach agreement on tariffs
Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.
Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.