While Europe may be “sleepwalking into a far-right trap”, Austria is consciously walking straight into it. After all, polls had predicted the most recent electoral success of the Austrian Freedom party (FPÖ) for almost two years. While the far-right party’s leader, Herbert Kickl, heralded its victory as the beginning of “a new era”, it is better understood as a seemingly unavoidable progression. If anything, the country’s recent election results confirmed a broader pattern of far-right normalisation in Europe in general and in Austria in particular.

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