Austria’s Far-Right Chancellor-in-Waiting Is a Canny Provocateur
- Freedom Party Leader Herbert Kickl trying to form a government
- Right-wing nationalists near power for first time since WWII
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Herbert Kickl, the conservative-nationalist tasked this week with forming Austria’s next government, is at once one of the most admired and loathed politicians in the country’s post-World War II history.
After two years of recession, supporters have thrown their weight behind Kickl’s claim that only an outsider like him can fix Austria’s flailing economy. Detractors counter that he’s a dangerous character who has raised ethnic and religious tensions by unfairly blaming foreigners for the country’s troubles.