GENEVA 

A poll published on Monday shows record approval ratings for Herbert Kickl, leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO).

According to the poll by the Linz-based Market Institute, Kickl has a 35% approval rating, which is a new record.

His party, the FPO, has a 37% approval rating in the poll, almost twice as strong as the chancellor's party, the Austrian People's Party (OVP), which only has a 19% approval rating.

“We have seen hardly any shifts in party preferences in recent weeks, which makes the responses to the chancellor question all the more striking,” writes Market Institute Director David Pfarrhofer about the survey.

According to the survey, incumbent Chancellor Christian Stocker now has only 10% approval.

Pfarrhofer explained: “We have to go back almost 10 years in our time series to find a similarly weak rating for the incumbent.”

In third place in the survey is the OVP's coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO), with 18%.

According to the figures, only 6% want SPO chairman and Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler to be chancellor.

The survey also shows that the OVP's second coalition partner, the liberal Neos party, has a 10% approval rating, and 8% of respondents would like to see party leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger become chancellor.

The anti-immigration FPO repeatedly attracts attention with racist statements about Muslims and migrants.

In February 2025, a designated FPO councilor in Hohenberg, Lower Austria, posted a TikTok video, in which he said: “You refugees know where you belong: in the oven,” adding: “You Tschuschen, you and your families all belong in the chamber.”

“Tschuschen” is a derogatory Austrian term for people of Southeast European or Middle Eastern origin. The mention of a “chamber” is generally understood as an allusion to the Nazi gas chambers.

The video ends with the politician giving the Hitler salute.