What the FPÖ and AfD have in common, and where they differ

The FPÖ and Germany’s AfD are often treated as branches of the same political tree. But the comparison has limits, and the Austrian party has already traveled farther to the right, according to this analysis.

That relationship drew little attention in January, when Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s leading candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, spent two days in Salzburg seeking advice from the local FPÖ. Marlene Svazek, the Salzburg FPÖ leader and deputy governor, invited him to see what governing looks like for a right-populist party.

The parties did not begin in the same place. Former Nazis founded the FPÖ, while the AfD began with economically liberal professors close to the CDU who opposed the introduction of the euro. The AfD later changed course, adopting the FPÖ’s emphasis on immigration policy, identity politics and, later, coronavirus policy.

The article contrasts how the parties are described. Reports commonly call the FPÖ right-populist, while Germany’s domestic intelligence service has led coverage of the AfD, including its Saxony-Anhalt branch, to repeatedly use the label “confirmed right-wing extremist.”

The FPÖ’s history includes two party leaders who served as SS officers, Anton Reinthaler and Friedrich Peter, as well as Jörg Haider’s use of references to the Nazi era for provocation. Heinz-Christian Strache also represented a former grey zone between the neo-Nazi milieu and the party’s youth scene. Yet the article says the FPÖ has undergone a process of rehabilitation, helped by its repeated experience in government at the city, state and federal levels. It generally governed without democratic reproach, apart from Herbert Kickl’s path involving a raid on the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but repeatedly broke apart at the federal level over internal disputes.

Under Kickl, the party has become unusually homogeneous, with little room for dissent. He is considered a natural opposition politician, and the party functions better there. The question is whether that changes if it returns to federal government. It is already governing in Styria, where Governor Mario Kunasek has gained further support in polls after his election victory. The article says Kunasek assigned the state’s savings portfolios to coalition partner ÖVP and instead presents himself as a personable governor touring local festivals.