Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Wednesday said political leaders must consider the country's image after the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) topped parliamentary elections. In a brief speech ahead of exploratory talks to form a viable ruling coalition,

Austria’s Freedom Party leads in the vote count, but may not be able to find coalition partners to form a government under provocative leader Herbert Kickl.

Austria's pro-Russia Freedom Party was celebrating Sunday night after it became the first far-right political party to win an election in the country since the Nazi era.

Though small, Austria has for centuries enjoyed outsize influence as a crossroads at the heart of Europe. Its neutral status, neither officially allied with NATO nor Russia, means that for centuries it has served as an arena for politicians, diplomats and spies trying to tilt the geopolitical balance.

The result of last Sunday's Austrian parliamentary elections followed the same pattern as the 2022 elections in Italy, 2023 in the Netherlands and 2024 in the German states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg.

Austria's Freedom Party (FPÖ) is set to come out on top in the European country's national election on Sunday, according to early projections, marking the first-time a far-right party has won since the Nazis first came to power in Europe nearly eight decades ago.

Political parties on the European right celebrated Sunday's parliamentary election victory by Austria's Freedom Party (FPO) as a boost for national conservatives amid advances by the hard right fuelled by worries about immigration.

Austria's far-right Freedom Party won a national parliamentary election, but it will struggle to find other parties willing to form a coalition government.