Austria's Freedom Party Embraces Remigration—"Conservatives" Need to Stand Aside
On September 29th 2024 the most important election in the post-war history of Austria took place. The Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) was led to electoral victory by Herbert Kickl under a manifesto entitled “Fortress Austria - Fortress of Freedom.”
This manifesto is simply spectacular and focuses heavily on the fact that without remigration and a homogeneous population the individual and cultural freedoms of the Austrian people are in danger of being snuffed out through mass immigration and demographic change.
The manifesto proclaimed that there are “four essential aspects of freedom” with those being:
Individuality
Sovereignty
Homogeneity
And Solidarity
The FPÖ’s 90-plus page manifesto ranges magisterially on topics from direct democracy to stopping the sexualization of children and halting the distribution of public money to LGBT organizations. The document reinforced Austria’s dual commitments to a strong army and neutral foreign policy, but it is under the heading of “homogeneity” that the manifesto shines its brightest.
The FPÖ (correctly) asserts that nation-states are created when people of a shared background come together to create a political structure, and that the national community suffers when homogeneity is eroded by a multicultural society.
The Demographic Situation:
Between 2002 and 2025 the foreign-born population of Austria as increased sharply. In January of 2002 1.12 million foreign-born people lived in Austria, representing 13.8% of the population. As of the 1st of January 2025 the foreign-born population sits just shy of 2.1 million people representing 22.7% of the nation’s population.
The non-Austrian population is significantly larger than the foreign-born population, however. Data from Statistics Austria shows that 2,448,800 people in Austria have a first and second-generation migrant background, with 620,100 people being born to two immigrant parents in the country. According to Statistics Austria’s data some 27.2% of the population of the country has a foreign background, a 35.1% increase from the 2015 foreign origin population of 1.81 million people.
Even these numbers are likely inaccurate, as third-generation immigrant descendants are not counted. The total number of Turkish-born citizens in Austria is 120,706 while the number of ethnic Turks in the country is thought to exceed 500,000. Similarly 116,000 Serbian citizens are said to reside in Austria while the ethnic Serbian population is believed to be in excess of 500,000.
It is likely that the native Austrian population of the country roughly 70% once estimates on ethnic minority communities from third party organizations are considered.
There is some hope, though. More than 867,000 European Union citizens live in Austria, with 225,000 of being Germans. Another 190,000 come from EU countries neighboring Austria. These European Union citizens represent 41.5% of Austria’s foreign born population and while it is not ideal for a nation-state, these are immigrants who can be integrated in a single generation.
The FPÖ Remigration Plans:
The FPÖ calls for the pushback of migrants at the border to prevent illegal crossings. This is to be met with a suspension to all asylum applications, and a policy that no person who has passed through a safe third country should ever be accepted. The FPÖ considers all countries surrounded Austria to be safe third countries.
The manifesto goes on to say that current asylum seekers will not be allowed to become Austrian citizens, will not be allowed to access public benefits, and that for any immigrant who does not respect Austria they must be sent home through a process of remigration.
The party seeks, explicitly, to reverse the flows of immigration with its identity-focused remigration policy that seeks to create and sustain a homeland for the Austrian people. While most of the policy proposals seek to remove illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in the country the FPÖ also states that those who refuse to integrate will be deported:
“Cultural and linguistic differences, attitudes towards women, as well as propensity for violence and crime are the central challenges when living together with immigrants, especially from regions of the world with a predominantly Muslim population. Anyone who violates our rules, our laws or commits a criminal offense has no place in Austria and in any case forfeits their right to Austrian citizenship.” [My translation.]
The FPÖ is prepared to strip non-ethnic Austrians of their citizenship if they prove incapable of living by Western standards and hold fast to their own cultural practices, something that is common among immigrants. The party intends to create an environment of “minus immigration” where the foreign population of Austria steadily decreases.
If a government under Herbert Kickl were to commit to this path of denaturalizing those who are not integrating the place to start would be the 306,000 people who are reported to speak a non-European language at home. Then there are the 30% of 15-64 year old foreign nationals not engaged in the Austrian labor market, or about 625,500 people.
Another large group of potential deportees who have not integrated into Austrian society are the 130,000 foreign-born suspects the Austrian police arrested in 2022. Half of all prisoners in Austria, or about 4,500 people, are of foreign extraction.
The Potential of Voluntary Repatriation:
Austria must take a page out of the White Papers and Swedish policy handbook and begin to put together a program of voluntary repatriation so that the hundreds of thousands of people in the country who do not feel like they belong will have the resources to go home.
According to the same Austrian Integration Report some 26% of immigrants in Austria do not feel they belong in Austria. Among immigrants who have been in the country less than five years some 46% do not feel they belong. In total roughly 488,500 immigrants in the country do not feel they belong.
If we take the average of these two figures and assume that roughly 36% of second-generation immigrants do not feel they belong this opens up the possibility of a further 223,000 departures under a voluntary repatriation programs.
A problem remains, however. The Conservative Austrian People’s Party has sabotaged Mr. Kickl’s attempts to form a government by constantly haggling over ministerial positions. This has brought us to the current situation where negotiations have collapsed, but there could be an upside. The latest opinion polling shows that if another election were to be held today the FPÖ would gain another 5-7% of the vote while the Austrian People’s Party would suffer a 7-9% loss at the ballot box.
The political class of Austria need to accept that the Austrian people wish to retain their nation-state, their ethnic cohesion, and the integrity of their culture. It is time for the conservatives to step aside let the FPÖ govern for the Austrian people.
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