In Vienna's working-class district, Herbert Kickl's uncompromising attitude is understandable.
April 23, 2025
In Vienna's working-class district, Herbert Kickl's uncompromising attitude is understandable.
Sunday will see the first mood test in the Austrian capital since the FPÖ lost the chancellery. While there has been some internal criticism, it appears to have caused little harm to the party at the local level.
Vienna's leading candidate, Dominik Nepp (left), and FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl are campaigning side by side. The party is due to explain why it is not participating in the federal government.
Georges Schneider / Photonews.at / Imago
Despite the cool weather, a festive atmosphere reigns in the Grossfeldsiedlung. Built in the 1960s, the prefabricated buildings on the northeastern edge of Vienna still constitute the city's largest municipal housing complex: around 13,000 people live there. This Saturday afternoon, the FPÖ invited people to a community building festival. Between the high-rise buildings are the festival benches and their "sausage cart" with a grill. Suckling pig, beer, and prosecco are served on tap, while singers perform hit songs on stage. Some couples dance on the lawn in front of the stage. »id-doc-1iovfc5ac1″
content pagetype=
componenttype=
is-new-line-child=
> The event takes place regularly, but just before the elections in Vienna, it mainly serves as an election campaign. That's why the Viennese leader of the FPÖ, Dominik Nepp, was also present. In his speech, he railed against rising prices, juvenile delinquency, what he considers a failed asylum policy, and especially against the Social Democrats. While the party has accepted budget cuts for pensioners at the federal level, money is being thrown at immigrants, he criticizes. The Freedom Party's lead candidate received widespread support; after his appearance, he signed autographs and posed for selfies. »id-doc-1iovgj5ao0″
> »id-doc-1ipeihm2g0″ The FPÖ risks missing its record result by far »Article »
Floridsdorf, where the Grossfeldsiedlung is located, is one of two large Viennese districts on the other side of the Danube, where rents are a little cheaper and where mainly workers once lived. It is a stronghold of the Freedom Party. They have already achieved two better results here than the SPÖ, which has dominated the capital for over a hundred years: in the 2015 Viennese elections"p" and six months ago in the national parliamentary elections »https://www.wien.gv.at/wahl/NET/GR151/GR151-321.htm» – but only by a margin of 175 votes. The FPÖ's goal is therefore to make the district blue again at the municipal level. However, there can only be a "duel" over Floridsdorf on Sunday and not over the whole of Vienna, as the right-wing populists proclaimed at the height of their power in 2015. It is almost certain that the popular incumbent Michael Ludwig will remain in the mayor's office even after the elections. The SPÖ is well ahead of its competitors in the polls with almost 40 percent. The FPÖ risks missing its record result of ten years ago by a wide margin. Nevertheless, it is already clear that she will be the big winner. In 2020, the party had fallen to just 7.1 percent after the Ibiza scandal. This figure could triple on Sunday.
componenttype=
Elections in Vienna are always a hot topic because more than 20 percent of Austria's population lives here. This year, it's also an important mood test, especially for the FPÖ. After his victory in last fall's national elections, its leader Herbert Kickl was on the verge of becoming Chancellor for the party's first time at the beginning of the year. However, he failed – because of his radicalism, if his political rivals are to be believed, or because of his adherence to principles, as he himself describes it. »Article»
The FPÖ thus missed a historic opportunity it had been striving for over thirty years. It would have had to betray its voters to gain power, Kickl explained after giving up on forming a government in mid-February. All party leaders adopted this view – including Dominik Nepp. They were certainly willing to compromise, but the conservative ÖVP did not negotiate honestly, he explained in an interview with ORF »true». "We have remained true to ourselves," said the Vienna state party leader.
But behind closed doors, Kickl's actions are also criticized, for example by business circles or the federal states. Some negotiators at the time would have liked to govern with the ÖVP – particularly in matters of economic and migration policy, the FPÖ could have implemented its own concerns with the conservatives. Instead, he now risks spending many years in opposition. »id-doc-1iovk6vcv0″
"https://on.orf.at/video/14270693/wahl-25-entscheidung-in-wien-dominik-nepp-fpoe-im-interview" Criticism of the "losers' traffic light"
At the Floridsdorf community building festival, however, Kickl's argument was widely accepted. Regardless, it's often very local issues that concern people. The bus stop has been further away since last year, complains one woman, and the children of foreign neighbors play too loudly in the yard. The nurse, who doesn't want to give her name, comes from a red family, as she says—her parents were loyal Social Democrats. She used to vote for the FPÖ out of protest, but now she does so out of conviction. "It's the only party that's there for us and not for the rich," she says in a broad Viennese dialect.
The 52-year-old admits that you can achieve more in government than in opposition. “Kickl is no messiah,” she also says. But he didn’t give in. The others had engaged in political intimidation against him. So, in fact, he didn’t stand a chance.
Helmut Amtmann shares a similar view, adding savage tirades to his criticism. Like Kickl and Nepp, he calls the new government a “losing traffic light coalition.” The three parties joined forces, even though they had completely opposing positions, just to prevent the FPÖ. The 71-year-old former scaffolder is particularly concerned about crime and knife attacks. Just recently, another violent argument broke out between Syrians in a nearby metro station, says Amtmann. Without the Interior Ministry, which the ÖVP had insisted on during the negotiations, the FPÖ would not have been able to do anything in this area anyway, says the pensioner. »p »
English 
French