D The gesture could hardly have been bigger: 5,000 supporters at the New Year’s meeting of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) in the Klagenfurt exhibition hall, a pompous countdown and in the middle of it all, party leader Herbert Kickl, who pressed the buzzer for “Austria’s Patriot Radio”. With the launch of “Austria First” on Saturday, the right-wing extremist FPÖ is further expanding its parallel media universe.
In addition to FPÖ-TV with 242,000 subscribers, the New Free Newspaper and a strong social media presence, the party now has a 24-hour radio station. The aim is to “bring our political content directly to the citizens in an unfiltered manner,” said FPÖ General Secretary Christian Hafenecker. In addition to a lot of music, there is “real news instead of left-wing opinion-mongering,” according to the new station’s self-description.
A look at the program quickly shows why the founding of another party station is questionable: The first “Journal” at 12 p.m. deals in detail with the FPÖ party conference with numerous congratulations on the start of broadcasting. No other news is reported, the weather report follows. While the station website lists at least one imprint in which the FPÖ is identified as the operator, this is completely missing from the app.
What comes under the guise of journalism is crude propaganda: the systematic delegitimization of established media while at the same time setting up our own channels. In the new station, Kickl described “system media” as “brainwashing” and his counter-program to the “left-wing zeitgeist” and “gender madness”. And he reiterated his desire to become “People’s Chancellor” – a term that the Nazis had also used.
Not a neutral radio producer
The new station will have no fewer than 13 presenters at launch. Program director Werner Reichel, who is also at the microphone himself, is not a neutral radio producer. The publicist wrote for the conspiracy theory magazine Cup exclusive and the German nationalist one Currently. He is also managing director of the book publisher “Frank & Frei”, where titles such as “And the Schwurbler were right” and “The German Welcome Madness” were published. His new mission is a channel “that is tailored exclusively to the interests and wishes of the majority of Austrians.” Postscript: “This hasn’t existed in the local left-wing media swamp.”
“Austria First” is just the tip of a worrying development. In Austria, party media are experiencing a renaissance, while independent journalism struggles to survive. In November 2025, the SPÖ, which currently has Andreas Babler as the media minister, launched its YouTube channel “SPÖ 1”. The station is a niche program, but the signal is fatal: while Austrian journalism is deep in crisis, a government party is promoting the already excessive PR glut.
All parliamentary parties have long been running their own online newspapers: the ÖVP with “Zur Sache” (since 2021), the SPÖ with “Kontrast” (2016), the Greens with “Freda” (2022) and the Neos with “Materie” (2022). But when it comes to professionalism and reach, no one can hold a candle to the FPÖ. It relied on digital channels earlier and more intensively than its competitors. Established media, on the other hand, hardly answer any questions about it anymore – she simply doesn’t need them anymore.
This development is questionable in terms of democratic policy. Journalistic editorial teams have to question critically and present different perspectives, party media spread their messages undisturbed. You don’t need any advertisers or subscribers because the party pays. Hardly anywhere is this more clear than on the FPÖ’s new radio station. Austria First makes the already narrow echo chamber even louder.