Austria's polarising far-right leader bids to become chancellor

He is abrasive, provocative and has one of the lowest approval ratings among top Austrian politicians but far-right leader Herbert Kickl is still the man to beat in Sunday's parliamentary election, which has at times resembled a referendum on him.

"Kickl here, Kickl there, Kickl everywhere," he joked at a typically rowdy, beer-filled rally in February.

Weeks earlier Chancellor Karl Nehammer framed the election as a choice "between him and me", at a conservative People's Party (OVP) meeting featuring lengthy video footage of Kickl.

"I don't know if I should feel more honoured or stalked!" Kickl said.

Such barbs punctuate Kickl's withering tirades against the unpopular OVP-Greens coalition government, helping make him arguably the most entertaining speaker in parliament.

He and his Freedom Party (FPO) have the wind at their backs. The economy is poised to shrink for a second year running and inflation has remained stuck above the European Union average.

Polls have long shown the FPO, which wants tougher immigration laws, leading a two-horse race with the OVP. The winner will need to form a coalition to govern.

Kickl is loathed by other party leaders, who have vowed not to work under him. He has shown no indication he could emulate Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders, who in March stepped aside so a government could form after his party won in 2023.

The FPO's lead is now wafer thin, and the OVP has stepped up its depictions of Kickl, an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as an extremist threat to security and democracy.

"It's impossible to form a government with someone who adores conspiracy theories, who describes the WHO, the World Health Organisation, as the next world government and the economic forum in Davos as preparation for global domination," Nehammer said this month.