Austria - elections

Far-right parties surge in parliamentary poll

Sunday 28 September 2008

According to partial results, Austria's outgoing government members, the Social Democratic Party and the People's Party, scored their worst result since WWII while the far right dramatically surged to take 30% of the vote.

Sunday 28 September 2008

By Reuters (text) / L. Barcellini and C. Westerheide (video)

VIENNA - Rightists surged to a combined 30 percent of the vote in Austria's parliamentary election on Sunday while the two main centrist parties slumped to their worst result since World War Two, early projections showed.

The rightists' showing exceeded poll forecasts and could make it harder for the traditional governing parties, the Social Democrats and conservatives, to re-establish a coalition even if they resolved the feuds that killed off their last one.

Initial projections based on the already counted 40 percent of the votes cast and considered highly accurate put the Social Democrats at 29 percent and the People's Party at 25 percent, down from 35 and 34 percent respectively in 2006.

The anti-foreigner Freedom Party was on target for 18 percent, compared with 11 percent two years ago, and Joerg Haider's right-wing populist Alliance for Austria's Future was on 12 percent, triple its showing in 2006.

The two parties broke up bitterly in 2005. Freedom leader Heinz-Christian Strache and Haider continued to attack each other in the campaign, leaving it unclear whether they might now cooperate to seek a share of power.

The environmentalist Greens were seen slipping to 10 percent from 11 percent, according to the early projections provided by Austrian state broadcaster ORF and national news agency APA.

Far-right Freedom and the somewhat more moderate Alliance benefited from the campaign's two most telegenic leaders, protest sentiment against the dysfunctional outgoing coalition and anti-inflation proposals.

A broad coalition formed by the two mainstream parties collapsed in July after 18 months of deadlock that blocked promised reforms and alienated many Austrians.

The Social Democrats, who headed the outgoing government, entered election day with a thin lead after their new leader Werner Faymann made anti-inflation measures the centrepiece of his campaign, but their edge was within the margin of error.

Personal and policy feuds

Personal and policy squabbles continued to divide the two main centrist parties but they will have little choice but to try to form another coalition, barring an attempt to hook up with the rightists.

Faymann ruled out a coalition with Freedom, best known for its campaigns against immigrants and Islam, while People's Party chief Wilhelm Molterer left the door open only if Freedom relaxed its anti-European Union position.

Strache's increased stress on tax breaks and anti-inflation subsidies, together with Haider's renunciation of rabble-rousing rhetoric in favour of a statesman-like openness to coalitions with anyone, cut into both main parties' support.

Freedom's first junior role in government so repelled the EU in 2000 that it briefly imposed sanctions on Austria. Strache wants to be interior minister and put a stop to immigration.

Faymann's plan to cushion the effects of inflation, at a 15-year high, crowded out other campaign themes including his call for EU referendums -- an about-face for his party that helped scupper the coalition with pro-EU conservatives.

Molterer, the finance minister, was the one who called off the coalition in July but his party's strategy of portraying him as a pillar of stability in turbulent economic times and painting Faymann as a reckless spender, appeared to fall flat.