The Continually Rising Tide of the Populist Right in Europe

Austria becomes the latest country struggling to keep an anti-liberal party out of power

Herbert Kickl, leader and top candidate of right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPOe) waves to supporters at the party's election event after exit poll numbers were announced at the Stiegl-Ambulanz restaurant in Vienna, Austria on September 29, 2024, during Austria's general election. (Photo by ROLAND SCHLAGER/APA/AFP via Getty Images)

Three months ago, the far-right National Rally finished in first place in the first round of French legislative elections. It’s been about a month since the far-right Alternative for Germany did the same in elections in the German state of Thuringia. And as of this past Sunday, the far-right Freedom Party of Austria won a plurality of the vote with its strongest showing ever in a national parliamentary election. 

The details differ from place to place, of course. But the underlying story is becoming quite commonplace across the continent: A government of long-established parties of the broad center sinks in popularity (in Austria, this would be the current coalition of the center-right People’s Party and the center-left Greens, which won 37.5 and 13.9 percent of the vote, respectively, four years ago); in the following elections, these parties suffer significant losses (the People’s Party down to 26 percent; the Greens to 8 percent) while the far-right opposition surges. In the Austrian case, the Freedom Party came close to doubling its 2019 showing of 16 percent to hit an unprecedented 29 percent, more than two points above its strongest previous high-water mark of 26.9 percent in 1999.

What happens next is far from clear—and that, too, is fast becoming the European norm.