Europe’s far right will look at Austria and say: this is how we do it | Cas Mudde and Gabriela Greilinger
www.theguardian.com
The success of Herbert Kickl’s FPÖ is no surprise – it had been normalised by the centre right for years. Let that be a warning, say Cas Mudde, professor of international affairs, and PhD student Gabriela Greilinger

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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