The far-right has won the most votes in an Austrian election for the first time since the Nazi era, as the pro-Kremlin, anti-Islam Freedom Party (FPÖ) beat the ruling centre-right People's Party (ÖVP).

The result of last Sunday's Austrian parliamentary elections followed the same pattern as the 2022 elections in Italy, 2023 in the Netherlands and 2024 in the German states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg.

Austria’s Freedom Party leads in the vote count, but may not be able to find coalition partners to form a government under provocative leader Herbert Kickl.

Kremlin, anti-Islam FPÖ, led by Herbert Kickl, won 29.2% of votes, beating the ruling ÖVP of the chancellor, Karl Nehammer, into second place

Austria's pro-Russia Freedom Party was celebrating Sunday night after it became the first far-right political party to win an election in the country since the Nazi era.

The far-right Freedom Party's historic victory in an Austrian parliamentary election has left it isolated and partly at the mercy of a powerful critic: the president, who must oversee efforts towards forming a viable coalition government.

Kickl's party won 29.1% of the vote according to provisional results - almost three points ahead of the conservative People's Party (ÖVP) on 26.4%, but far short of a majority. Kickl's victory is only the latest in a string of far-right election successes in Europe and he praised voters for their "optimism,

European far-right and nationalist parties are celebrating the far-right Freedom Party’s win in Austria’s election

Political parties on the European right celebrated Sunday's parliamentary election victory by Austria's Freedom Party (FPO) as a boost for national conservatives amid advances by the hard right fuelled by worries about immigration.