As the senior governing coalition partner, the Freedom Party (FPO), led by Herbert Kickl, is expected to implement even harsher anti-Muslim policies in Austria

Despite provoking outrage from other mainstream political parties, German conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz said on Monday that he plans to push forward with a vote in parliament on hard-line immigration legislation.

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There is a certain irony here: the negotiations on the "Zuckerl" coalition were ended because of the SPÖ's demand for new taxes. Since then, the Reds

Developments in Saxony belie all talk by the establishment parties of a supposed “firewall” against collaborating with the Alternative for Germany (AfD). They show how far advanced the integration of this far-right party into the state already is.

If the German political class generally pays limited attention to Austrian politics, its southern neighbor’s convulsed start to the year has forced them to ask what it means for Germany. After Chancellor Karl Nehammer from Austria’s center-right People’s Party (ÖVP) announced his resignation,

The far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the conservative People's Party (ÖVP), currently negotiating a coalition government in the Alpine state, are planning massive attacks on the working class and on migrants.

In Austria, Sweden and Finland, conservative parties are making Faustian pacts with their more extreme opponents

Austria wore out the cordon sanitaire long ago. For much of the postwar era, the Freedom party was excluded by a series of grand coalitions (barring a single early-1980s coalition with the Social Democrats),

Perhaps it struck a chord because Fritz is not just a nickname for Friedrich but also for a stereotypical German person – and Merz’s stiff public demeanour very much makes him a 'Fritz'. He has been tortured by the nickname throughout his career, most famously in the pages of Titanic, a satirical magazine.

Since then, the conservatives have agreed to form a government with the far-right under a Chancellor Kickl. Kickl has successfully lobbied by promising the capital associations that he would implement the economic programme of the conservatives if he could take over the chancellery and important ministries.

In the middle of the coalition negotiations with the ÖVP, the Freedom Party demonstrated its will to power at its New Year's meeting on Saturday.