Populists Gain Ground: Austrian Voters Shift to the Right

Heinz-Christian Strache, FPÖ

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Austrians voted on Sunday to re-elect their current coalition government. But the country's two largest parties saw their worst nationwide election results since World War II while the right-wing populists made substantial gains.

Austria's governing parties were voted back into office in national elections on Sunday, despite losses and an unmistakable shift to the right in the country.

Preliminary official results show Chancellor Werner Faymann's center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) as the strongest in parliament, with 27.1 percent of votes. Its coalition partner, the center-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) scored 23.8 percent of the vote.

The right-wing populist Freedom Party (FPÖ) has once again secured its slot as the third biggest party in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, with 21.4 percent of the vote. The party also registered a 3.9 percent increase in votes compared to 2008 elections. The Green Party will be fourth largest, with 11.5 percent of the votes. » | dsl -- with wires | Monday, September 30, 2013

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