Brussels 09.06.2024 First results: AUSTRIA: The far-right Freedom Party, FPÖ, is ascending.

After voting closed on Sunday May 9, a forecast poll based on surveys carried out over the past week shows them comfortably leading with 27%.

That’s ahead of the conservative People’s Party, ÖVP, with 23.5%, and the Social Democrats, SPÖ, with 23%.

If this forecast is confirmed, it will be the first time the FPÖ has come in first place in a nationwide election in Austria. It suggests a dramatic change of fortune for the party.

Support for the FPÖ collapsed in 2019, after the “Ibizagate” scandal, in which its former leader was caught on video promising government contracts to a woman pretending as the family member of a Russian oligarch.

But the party has capitalised on voter discontent with the pandemic measures, as well as rises in the cost of living related to the EU sanctions against Russia caused by the war in Ukraine.

The EU election is seen by many Austrian citizens as a rehearsal for the general election in autumn, and the Freedom Party is feeling increasingly confident.