Nearly 700,000 postal votes will decide whether a hardline Austrian will become the European Union's first far-right president.

Austrians were bracing themselves for a sharp shift in the country’s political direction today after two far-right, anti-immigration parties made big gains in national elections.

Austria’s far-right parties made huge gains in weekend parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results, while the Social Democrats took the most votes but saw their worst results in decades.

Austria’s two far-right parties could well make significant gains in national elections this weekend, less than a decade after the rise of the right led to EU diplomatic sanctions.