Herbert Kickl, the conservative-nationalist tasked this week with forming Austria’s next government, is at once one of the most admired and loathed politicians in the country’s post-World War II history.

The leader of the anti-immigration, pro-Russia Freedom Party has been given the chance to try to form a government after months of coalition talks among mainstream parties collapsed.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen has asked the leader of the country's far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) to form a new ruling coalition in what could yield the first far-right-led government in Austria since World War II.