Jörg Haider became leader of the party in 1986, after which it began an ideological turn towards right-wing populism. This resulted in a strong surge in electoral support, but also led the SPÖ to break ties, and a splinter in the form of the Liberal Forum in 1993. In the 1999 election, the FPÖ won 26.9% of the vote, becoming the second most popular party, ahead of the ÖVP by around 500 votes. The two parties eventually reached a coalition agreement in which ÖVP retained the office of chancellor. The FPÖ soon lost most of its popularity, falling to 10% in the 2002 election, but remained in government as junior partner. Internal tensions led Haider and much of the party leadership to leave in 2005, forming the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), which replaced the FPÖ as governing partner. Heinz-Christian Strache then became leader, and the party gradually regained its popularity, peaking at 26.0% in the 2017 election. The FPÖ once again became junior partner in government with the ÖVP. In May 2019, the Ibiza affair led to the collapse of the government and the resignation of Strache from both the offices of vice-chancellor and party leader.[33] The resulting snap election saw the FPÖ fall to 16.2% and return to opposition.[34][35] On 30 June 2024, the ANO 2011, the Freedom Party of Austria, and the Fidesz, created a new alliance named Patriots for Europe.[36]
• Hainsworth, Paul (2008), The Extreme Right in Western Europe, Routledge, pp. 38–39
• Art, David (2011), Inside the Radical Right: The Development of Anti-Immigrant Parties in Western Europe, Cambridge University Press, pp. 106–107
• Wodak, Ruth; De Cillia, Rudolf; Reisigl, Martin (2009), The Discursive Construction of National Identity (2nd ed.), Edinburgh University Press, p. 195
• Hale Williams, Michelle (2012), "Downside after the summit: factors in extreme-right party decline in France and Austria", Mapping the Extreme Right in Contemporary Europe: From Local to Transnational, Routledge, p. 260
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