Angerer backs Darmann and targets government role for FPÖ
Thursday 27th August 2026 on 19:15 in
Austria
FPÖ leader Erwin Angerer has endorsed Gernot Darmann as the party’s leading candidate in Klagenfurt’s municipal and mayoral elections, while saying he expects to lead the party in the next Carinthian state election, ORF Kärnten reported after its summer interview with him.
Angerer said the FPÖ aimed to increase its support across Carinthia by 15 percentage points. In Klagenfurt, he backed Darmann rather than current city councillor Sandra Wassermann, saying Darmann had better chances.
“As far as I am concerned, it is certain that I will be the leading candidate, unless something extraordinary happens,” Angerer said of the state election, which is due a year after the municipal and mayoral votes.
Angerer rejects questions over far-right links
Asked about allegations of links between the Freedom Youth and the far-right Identitarian movement, Angerer declined to comment, saying the issue primarily concerned Vienna.
Regarding Viktor Erdesz, the former head of the Freedom Youth in Carinthia who was recently expelled from the party over far-right contacts, Angerer said Erdesz had stepped down and appointed an acting successor. A new leader could be elected only at a party conference, he said, adding that the Freedom Youth would decide the matter at its next meeting.
Criticism of climate campaigners
Angerer recently attracted attention during the drought by telling Kleine Zeitung that he feared an ice age more. In the ORF interview, he said: “I do not like being driven crazy by left-wing, ideologically driven climate hysterics and then forgetting that we should be dealing with the real problems facing the population.”
He identified the labour market, migration and healthcare as key concerns. Angerer said healthcare needed to become less expensive locally so that residents could remain there, while services should also be specialised.
He said the basic idea behind primary care centres was not bad and had been supported by the FPÖ. However, he said they had originally been intended to be run privately by doctors, whereas in Carinthia the system was being nationalised and operated by KABEG.
Angerer rejected accusations that the FPÖ was pursuing blanket opposition. He said many of the party’s proposals were rejected in the state parliament, but that its goal remained to join the next state government.