70 Years of the FPÖ

From Underdog to the Ruling Party’s Nightmare

Haider, Strache, Kickl: The past 70 years of the FPÖ have produced several politicians who will likely go down in the history books. One way or another.(Bild: APA/Bernhard J. Holzner, APA/LUDWIG VYSOCAN, APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

For 70 years, the Freedom Party has been a force in Austrian politics. First as a party of “former members,” now as the largest parliamentary party—but in opposition. Longtime FPÖ stalwart Andreas Mölzer offers an analysis on the occasion of the party’s anniversary.

When the Freedom Party gathered on April 7, 1956, at the Hotel Weißer Hahn in Vienna for its modest founding convention, they were, in a sense, regarded as the black sheep of the Second Republic: a party of former—mostly less-involved—Nazis, eligible for election only by incorrigible German nationalists, displaced ethnic Germans, and war veterans.