Bravo, Austrian people! We are getting ever so close to that "King Louis XVI Moment". We can avoid that IF the totalitarians are beat at the ballot box worldwide -- you just have to convince people they do NOT need a nanny to run their lives like so many thoughout the world today seem to think (and they also need to wake up to the fact that government is NOT there to help them, only to keep them as cattle) . . .


Far right wins Austria election, boosting European right-wing surge

Austrian voters handed a first-ever general election victory to the far-right Freedom Party on Sunday, preliminary results showed, illustrating rising support for hard-right parties in Europe fueled by concern over immigration levels.

The Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO held a slim lead in opinion polls for months over Chancellor Karl Nehammer's ruling conservative Austrian People's Party (OVP) in a campaign dominated by immigration and worries about the economy.

Led by the 55-year-old Herbert Kickl, the FPO won 28.8% of the vote, ahead of the OVP on 26.3%, and the centre-left Social Democrats on 21.1%, according to a projection based on nearly all the vote by pollster Foresight for broadcaster ORF, a slightly bigger victory margin than final polls had indicated.

"We've made Austrian history because it's the first time the Freedom Party is Number 1 in a parliamentary election, and you have to think how far we've come," Kickl said after the party's record showing, which came seven decades after its foundation in the 1950s under the leadership of a former Nazi lawmaker.

Kickl's win was hailed by hard-right parties across Europe, where the far-right has made gains in countries including the Netherlands, France and Germany. That growing support could stoke the risk of divisions inside the European Union over key policy areas like the defense of Ukraine against Russia.