MFG Austria – People Freedom Fundamental Rights (, MFG) is a

minor Minor may refer to: Common meanings * Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities. * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to an ...

political party in Austria This article lists political parties in Austria. Austria has a multi-party system. Of the over 1,100 registered political parties, only few are known to the larger public. Since the 1980s, four parties have consistently received enough votes to g ...

. The party is often described by media outlets as the "

anti-vaccination Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine hesitancy by dissem ...

" or "vaccine-critical" and its voters have been described as following or spreading conspiracy theories. The party claims to have 4,000 members.

History

In the 2021 Upper Austrian state election, the party achieved 6.23% of the votes cast and will thus be represented with 3 seats in the Upper Austrian Landtag. It is strongly represented in

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

, especially in the

Ried im Innkreis District Bezirk Ried is a district of the state of Upper Austria in Austria. Municipalities Towns (''Städte'') are indicated in boldface; market towns (''Marktgemeinden'') in ''italics''; suburbs, hamlets and other subdivisions of a municipality are ind ...

, where after it was founded, local groups formed in eight communities: Aurolzmünster,

Eberschwang Eberschwang is a municipality in the district of Ried im Innkreis in the Austrian state of Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Cz ...

Geinberg Geinberg is a municipality in the district of Ried im Innkreis in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Geography Geinberg lies in the Innviertel The Innviertel (literally German language, German for "Inn Quarter"; officially called the ; ) is ...

, Gurten,

Ried im Innkreis Ried im Innkreis (Central Bavarian: ''Riad'') is a town in the Austrian state of Upper Austria, approximately west of Linz and north of Salzburg. It is the capital of the district of Ried im Innkreis (district), Ried im Innkreis, and it serves a ...

Sankt Martin im Innkreis St. Martin im Innkreis is a municipality in Ried District, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Geography St. Martin lies in the Innviertel (''Innkreis'') region, situated on the west slope of the Troßkolm forest in the Antiesen valley. It ...

Utzenaich Utzenaich is a municipality in the district of Ried im Innkreis in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Geography Utzenaich lies in the Innviertel The Innviertel (literally German language, German for "Inn Quarter"; officially called the ; ) i ...

and

Waldzell Waldzell is a municipality in the district of Ried im Innkreis in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Geography Waldzell lies in the Innviertel The Innviertel (literally German language, German for "Inn Quarter"; officially called the ; ) is ...

. With Joachim Aigner, the top candidate for the 2021 Upper Austrian state election also comes from the Ried District. The party got its best results in communities with many unvaccinated people. The party scored a major election result in the January 2022 municipal election in

Waidhofen an der Ybbs Waidhofen an der Ybbs (, ) is a statutory city ''(Statutarstadt)'' in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. The city had a population of 11,662 as of the 2001 census and an area of 131.56 km². It was first mentioned in 1186 and has been the e ...

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

, winning more than 17% of the vote. In the municipal elections in

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

in February 2022, the party competed in 50 of 274 municipalities, winning seats in 47 of them and averaging about 10% of the vote. It has also setting up leadership and organizational structures in all 9 federal states and competed in the

2022 Austrian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Austria on 9 October 2022. Incumbent Alexander Van der Bellen from the The Greens – The Green Alternative, Greens was eligible for one more term and ran for re-election. About 6.36 million voting-age citizens ...

with party leader Michael Brunner. In the 2024 European parliament election in Austria, the party did not run a candidate list. In the

2024 Austrian legislative election General election, Legislative elections were held in Austria on 29 September 2024 to elect the 28th National Council (Austria), National Council, the lower house of Austria's bicameral parliament. The election saw the far-right Freedom Party o ...

, the party received 0.4% of the vote and did worse than fellow anti-vaccination party

Madeleine Petrovic List The Madeleine Petrovic List (; LMP) is a Green politics, green and COVID-19 misinformation, COVID-19 sceptical List of political parties in Austria, political party in Austria founded by former The Greens – The Green Alternative, Green spokeswom ...

Leadership

Party chairman In politics, a party chair (often party chairperson/-man/-woman or party president) is the presiding officer of a political party. The nature and importance of the position differs from country to country, and also between political parties. Th ...

: Michael Brunner * Deputy Party Chairman: Christian Fiala *

Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

Spokesperson A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...

: Gerold Beneder * Financial advisor: Gerhard Pöttler * Secretary: Dagmar Häusler * Deputy Secretary: Gabriele Safran

Election results

National Council

President

State Parliaments

References

External links

Official homepage of the MFG
{{DEFAULTSORT:MFG Austria - People Freedom Fundamental Rights Political parties in Austria Anti-vaccination organizations COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy Political parties established in 2021 Organizations established for the COVID-19 pandemic Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on politics