Austria’s parliamentary election on September 29 was widely hailed as a defeat for “populists,” as Sebastian Kurz’s conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) swept to victory amidst the collapse of its former coalition partner, the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). The election had been prompted by a government scandal in May, centered on the FPÖ’s deputy chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache. He was forced to resign when footage emerged of him and FPÖ parliamentary leader Johann Gudenus promising state contracts in exchange for party donations, in the so-called “Ibiza Affair.”

The FPÖ had made its first advance beginning in the 1980s, and over subsequent years built its rise on racist incitement as well as agitation against the grand coalition formed by the ÖVP and the social-democratic SPÖ. Through this the far-right party consolidated its electoral base, entering the national government for the first time in 2000. When it again joined a coalition administration with the ÖVP in 2017, the FPÖ looked intent on staying in high office. Indeed, the shattered Left — at its lowest point since World War II — soon accustomed itself to the prospect of a far-right ÖVP-FPÖ government, considered bound to last for a decade.

However, after a series of scandals over the last year, the FPÖ in fact suffered a big drop in support in the September 29 contest, in which it received just 16 percent of the vote (a 10 percent fall compared to the October 2017 election). After having mounted a seemingly unstoppable rise, the far-right party has now suddenly plunged. The precise consequences of its losses remain unpredictable, possibly including a split in its ranks. But more worrying is the fact that the election again showed the lack of any left-wing voice able to put up serious opposition to the ÖVP-FPÖ duo.