Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO) has been projected to finish first in the country’s general election, ahead of the governing conservatives.

A projection by pollster Foresight for broadcaster ORF projected on Sunday that Herbert Kickl’s FPO had received 29.1 percent of the vote, with Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party (OVP) coming second with 26.2 percent.

The centre-left Social Democrats were projected to come third, with 20.4 percent.

Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and longtime campaign strategist who has led the FPO since 2021, seeks to become Austria’s new chancellor on the back of the first far-right national election win in post-World War II Austria.

However, for 55-year-old Kickl to become Austria’s new leader, he would need a coalition partner to command a majority in the lower house of parliament – and rivals have said they will not work with the politician.

Concerns over the economy and immigration into the country dominated the campaign period towards the polls and largely evaporated the votes of Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s OVP.

The FPO victory would make Austria the latest EU country to register surging far-right support after gains in countries including the Netherlands, France and Germany.

The Eurosceptic FPO, which is critical of Islam and pledges tougher rules on asylum seekers, won a national vote for the first time in June when it beat the OVP by less than a percentage point in European elections.