Unlike previous leaders of the Austrian Freedom Party such as Jörg Haider and Heinz-Christian Strache, Herbert Kickl is not a man who likes to cheerful in friendly company. His charm and his charisma are quite visible, the 55-year-old politician has the reputation of a loner, notes ARD.
Nevertheless, Kickle has done good work for the Freedom Party in recent years. In 2019, the party suffered a heavy blow along the so-called The “Ibiza affair”, related to its previous leader Strache. And now he achieved a huge success, coming in first place in the parliamentary elections in Austria. Because of this, Kickle has a chance to be elected chancellor. He himself during the election campaign even talked about “Peoples Chancellor” (“people's chancellor“) - despite accusations that the term has a connection with National Socialism, the German public-law media points out.
The provocation – his primary weapon
Kikkel, who is a long-distance runner and climber, has been leading the right-wing populists since 2021. In his speeches, the leader is aggressive and provocative, often using appeals. Back when he was just a speechwriter and campaign manager, he formulated slogans like "Austria first." You choose!", “Motherland instead of Islam“ and "Vienna blood instead of foreigners", recalls ARD.
When Kickle, who grew up in a working-class family in Carinthia, went to present himself in the Freedom Party as a youth, he was told: "I can't do anything, but I can learn anything" - this is what his biographers Gernot Bauer and Robert Treichler testify: Initially, Kickle started as an assistant in the political academy of the right-wing populists - pasting posters and setting up advertising screens.
But his talent made an impression and he made a career - he became the author of the speeches of the leader Haider, whom he praised, with whom the rise of the Freedom Party began in the 1980s. Kickel also became Strache's right-hand man, with whom he collaborated for 12 years, while he was the general secretary of the party. Long before Trump popularized the slogan "America first", the party positioned itself thanks to Kickle as a "social party of the motherland", concerned primarily with the interests of Austrians, writes ARD.
From interior minister to oppositionist
In the coalition government formed in 2017 between the Austrian People's Party and the Austrian Freedom Party, Kickle became interior minister under Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Then, for example, it causes outrage with its insistence on introducing an evening curfew for asylum seekers. He also advocates the position that "law should follow politics, not the other way around".
The coalition led by Chancellor Kurz collapsed as a result of the so-called “Ibiza Affair”. Video footage was circulated showing then-party leader and vice-chancellor Strache meeting with a Russian multi-millionaire who offered him pre-election help in exchange for receiving government contracts. This revelation led to Strache's resignation and the Freedom Party's poor performance in the 2019 elections. In the years since, Kickle has successfully emerged as an oppositionist. He declared himself against migrants, against political elites and the "systemic media", as he likes to call them - to the delight of his fellow party members. The coronavirus crisis has become a key element in the resurgence of right-wing populists. During the pandemic, the Freedom Party became a spokesperson for the opponents of vaccines and accused the World Health Organization of a "health dictatorship,", ARD recalls.
For the Austrian People's Party, Kickle is a risk
The statements of Kickle, who studied history and philosophy but did not graduate, as well as his Russophile views made him unattractive even to Chancellor Nehammer's Austrian People's Party. Conservatives call it a "security risk" and reject cooperation with him - but not with the rest of the party. Kickel had "self-radicalized," said the current chancellor Karl Nehammer, who even before the election ruled out possible cooperation with the leader of the Freedom Party, notes ARD.
Furthermore, as the German public-law media writes, before any probing for a possible coalition is even possible, Kickle would have to receive a mandate to form a government from President Alexander Van der Bellen. This mandate is normally given to the winner of the election, but this is not fixed in the constitution. And the president has already expressed reservations on this issue.
Biliana Mihailova editor