How did the far right win in Austria? To understand, look to its global networks | Julia Ebner

The Freedom party hasn't only harnessed discontent at home - it is drawing on once-fringe ideas that have spread around the world

We will kick upwards and clamp down on those who don't mean well for us", said Herbert Kickl in May 2023. Under Kickl's leadership, the Austrian Freedom party (FPO) has scored its biggest election victory since it was founded in 1956 by Anton Reinthaller, an Austrian Nazi who had served as a lieutenant general in the SS. Not only is the FPO now more popular than ever, it is also at the height of its radicalism.

The FPO's victory in Sunday's national elections is being celebrated by far-right movements and influencers across Europe. No wonder: it demonstrates how successful they have been at normalising and internationalising their extreme ideologies, conspiracy myths and policy proposals.

Julia Ebner is an Austrian academic and author who leads the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford's Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion. She is also a senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and author of The Rage, Going Dark and Going Mainstream

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