EU rocked as far-right party founded by Nazi WW2 veterans storms to victory

The far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) looks set to claim a landmark victory, in a result certain to send shockwaves through Brussels.

The FPO, led by Herbert Kickl, was expected to take the top spot in the general election. The party's triumph is yet another sign of an increasingly right-leaning Europe.

Founded by a group of Nazi SS officers in the 1950s, the party is reported to have claimed 29.1 percent of the vote, besting the centre-right Austrian People's Party.

The People's Party - which leads the current coalition government - garnered 26.2 percent. The centre-left Social Democrats came in third at 20.4 percent.

Although the FPO appears to have won the election, it is short of the majority it needs to rule outright. If Herbert Kickl hopes to form the next government of the central European country he will need to agree on a coalition deal.

Unlike in other parts of Europe, the FPO has recently been in power as a junior coalition partner.

From 2017 to 2019, it was propping up the People's Party-led government, before a scandal involving the then-Vice-Chancellor of Austria and FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache forced snap elections. The FPO performed poorly in the poll.

Despite being founded by Nazis, the party was relatively moderate until the 1980s when it moved much further to the right.

In more recent times, the FPO has been a thought leader for the far-right throughout Europe, according to an Austrian political scientist, Farid Hafez.

Earlier this year, he told this website: "The FPO has always been leading in inspiring other far-right parties. 'Austria First' was a slogan in the early 1990s, Haider led the FPO as the first far-right party to form a government in an EU country.

"And it is a typical far-right party comparable to others like the Sweden Democrats, the French National Rally or the Brothers of Italy when it comes to its post-Fascist or post-Nazism legacy.

"It has also rebranded itself as a protector of Jews to mobilise against [what it sees as] the new internal enemy, Muslims.

"The FPO was one of the first parties to introduce anti-Muslim policy claims successfully on a European level, back in 2008, when it started an alliance called Cities Against Islamisation with the Vlaams Belang and several German far-right parties."