Conservative Schuessel bests Haider in Austrian polls
With just over 35% of the votes counted, Mr Schuessel’s People’s Party captured over 43%, a more than 16 percentage-point increase over its last showing in the 1999 polls, according to the results released by state television.
Mr Haider’s Freedom Party, coalition partners with Mr Schuessel’s conservatives, stood at just over 10%, down almost two-thirds from the 27% captured in the last elections.
The Social Democrats also gained but appeared to have been outpaced by the People’s Party. They were listed at just over 36%, about three percentage points more than in the 1999 elections. The environmentalist Greens stood at around 8%, little changed from their results two years ago.
Final official results were expected this morning. If the figures remain
unchanged the People’s Party surge would reflect the strongest gains by any party since the end of the Second World War.
Conversely, the Freedom Party losses, if confirmed in final results, represent the largest drop in popularity of any party since the end of the war.
If the final results confirm the People’s Party in first place, that would put them above the Socialists in terms of popularity for the first time since 1966.
Despite their poor showing, the Freedom Party remained in position to extend its government role into the next legislative period.
Although the Social Democrats and the People’s Party have buried differences in the past to govern in a ‘Grand Coalition’, it was unclear whether the Social Democrats would opt to again cooperate with their traditional rivals.
Their leader, Alfred Gusenbauer, had expressed confidence his party would win at the polls, and it was unlikely he would allow the People’s Party to dictate coalition terms from a much stronger position.
With political differences great and mutual suspicions strong between the Greens and the People’s Party, that left a renewed coalition between the Mr Schuessel’s conservatives and Mr Haider’s rightist a likely option. When Mr Haider’s party came to power in 1999, the European Union imposed seven months of diplomatic sanctions on Austria, alarmed by then-party leader Mr Haider’s
anti-foreigner stance, veiled slights of Jews and open admiration for some of Adolf Hitler’s policies. EU officials now concede that sanctions were a mistake that strengthened Mr Haider among those convinced the rest of the world was against them and that Austria was being punished for making a democratic choice.
Following the Freedom Party’s success, right-wingers and anti-immigration mavericks made gains in France, the Netherlands and Denmark.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
