The political party on the verge of leading Austria would take an already conservative country into a growing group of nations shifting to the far-right of European politics. It has flirted with Nazi slogans, cozied up to Russia and drawn warnings from Holocaust survivors’ groups. It campaigned on promises to deport immigrants and ban political forms of Islam.
The Freedom Party, known as the FPÖ, and its firebrand leader, Herbert Kickl, were given the chance to form a governing coalition this week, after efforts to bar them from power collapsed. If they succeed, it would be a shock to the Austrian political system and a further jolt to Western Europe, where similarly far-right parties are surging in France, Germany and elsewhere.
But it would not be a surprise.
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