The right-wing populists have been leading the polls for months.
An election victory for the Freedom Party of Austria would be a first for the country - even though right-wing positions have been represented in politics for a long time.
The country is currently governed by a coalition of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the Greens under Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who is also running again as the ÖVP's top candidate. According to opinion polls, the ÖVP and FPÖ will decide the election victory between themselves.
Pollsters see Austria facing a fundamental change in the balance of political power. The ruling ÖVP must therefore expect significant losses, with polls putting it at around 24 to 26 per cent. In the 2019 election, it received 37.5 per cent of the vote.
For the first time in history, the FPÖ could become the strongest political force in Austria: It currently comes in at around 28 per cent.
According to the figures, the SPÖ has maintained its 2019 result with around 20 per cent of the vote, while the Greens appear to have lost ground, probably losing half of their voters and only receiving around seven to nine per cent.
Migration a key issue
One of the central issues in the election campaign is migration - both on the part of the parties and in voter perception. While the ÖVP advertises stability and security for citizens, the FPÖ promises strict immigration restrictions modelled on Victor Orban's model in Hungary. Also: "Remigration".
The FPÖ wants to significantly step up deportations.
The current right of asylum in Austria should be suspended by emergency law, according to the FPÖ election programme. "No asylum applications in Austria. We are surrounded by safe countries. Whoever stops mass migration also stops the import of Islamism," FPÖ chancellor candidate Herbert Kickl makes his position clear.
He is running with the claim to become "People's Chancellor".
That's what Adolf Hitler called himself.
Positions that cause opposition among Christian organisations in Austria. The chairwoman of the Catholic Workers' Movement Austria (KABÖ), Anna Wall-Strasser, recently emphasised that she finds it "alarming when politicians drift to the far right during election campaigns and send out corresponding signals".
It is important to conduct the migration debate with "courage, reason and confidence" while upholding humane values and human rights; Christians in particular have a responsibility here.
During the election campaign, the FPÖ election poster, on which the party advertised with the slogan "Your will be done" based on the Lord's Prayer, was particularly criticised by the churches. The party is playing with the most important prayer for Christians, according to the Secretary General of the Austrian Bishops' Conference, Peter Schipka. "Anyone who does this must be aware that they are playing with something that is sacred to people and are therefore not showing these people the respect they deserve."
No clear condemnation of the FPÖ
There was no clear condemnation of the FPÖ from the Austrian bishops, comparable to the German bishops' criticism of the AfD. As usual, the churches did not make any election recommendations either, but called for responsible decisions - for example by means of various guidelines published by the Catholic and Protestant churches.
The guide "Voting responsibly as a Christian", compiled by the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Vienna and the Catholic Social Academy of Austria, analyses various policy areas according to criteria of Christian social ethics. According to the initiators, the aim is "not to recommend a vote".
However, they cannot hide the fact that they are concerned about the rise of the FPÖ in particular. Many of the positions represented by the party are not only right-wing populist, but also include "right-wing nationalist, right-wing extremist and nationalist political options" - and are therefore "clearly incompatible with Christian principles".
Should the FPÖ become the strongest party on Sunday, its 55-year-old leader will not necessarily become "People's Chancellor". This would require a coalition partner to make him one.
The current chancellor and ÖVP leader Nehammer has repeatedly ruled out working with Kickl as head of government.
Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen also opposed Kickl as chancellor.