Here we go again. Whenever populists or conservatives win an election, the media attacks the victors as being fascist or authoritarian and opposed to freedom itself.

It happened when Giorgia Meloni won in Italy and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands – both of whom have been governing successfully for many months. In Argentina, Javier Milei was attacked as a dangerous radical before being sworn into office, after a landslide win last December. Since then, his country’s economy has stabilized as inflation has plummeted.

Now in Austria. The first-place finish of the “far-right” Freedom Party in Sunday’s election has been met with hysterical headlines and warnings. The one from Politico is typical.

In reality, Austria’s economy has been in stagnation and the failure to deal with rising numbers of migrants and asylum seekers is why voters have given the Freedom Party its largest percentage ever.

The policy agenda of the Freedom Party is the opposite of fascism. The platform is the most free market ever, and was co-written by Barbara Kolm of the Hayek Institute and a former deputy director of Austria’s central bank.

She is in favor of a flat tax, against measures to curb tax competition between nations, ending taxes on capital gains, and imposing tuition fees for Austrian universities. Hardly radical stuff!  We hope the Freedom Party will have the chance to prove its critics wrong by actually implementing some of its reforms as part of the new government and seeing them succeed.