Populist Radical Right Parties and Pension Privatization

Populist radical right parties (PRRP) have experienced notable electoral success across Europe in recent decades. While their preferences regarding public social policy have been widely studied, their influence on private social policy remains underexplored. This article examines how PRRP seek to reconcile the tension between aiming to balance budgets in times of high public debt and responding to pro‐welfare electorates. Focusing on the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), I trace the party's efforts to promote private pension provision prior to and during its participation in government, relying on document analysis and expert interviews. By strengthening the role of financial markets in old‐age income provision, the FPÖ aimed to reduce public expenditure while maintaining high benefit levels, albeit distributed across three pillars and greater individual responsibility. The paper shows that pension financialization can be introduced not only as a response to functional necessities like demographic ageing, but also as an ideological rationale.