Austria picks Europe’s youngest leader, coalition with far-right unclear

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Austria looks set to get Europe’s youngest ever head of state after the conservative People’s Party scored a resounding victory in Sunday’s general election, although whether he will build a coalition with the far-right, as feared, remains unclear.

The People’s Party (OeVP), led by Austria’s dynamic 31-year-old Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, won a clear mandate to lead the next government after securing 31.4 percent of votes, according to preliminary results published by the interior ministry late Sunday local time.

The far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) came second with 27.4 percent, ahead of the Social Democrats (SPOe) – whose leader Christian Kern is the current chancellor – with 26.7 percent of votes.

Far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) leader Heinz-Christian Strache and his wife attend an election party in Vienna, Austria, October 15, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Postal ballots, which have not yet been taken into account, will take a few days to be tallied and could still change the final result. A record 890,000 such ballots were sent out this year - making up almost 13 percent of eligible voters - and these tend to tilt leftward.

Predictions for the SORA polling institute and national broadcaster ORF are expecting the SPOe to leapfrog the far-right in the end, finishing with 26.9 percent, ahead of the FPOe with 26.0 percent.

Final results including postal ballots should be published on Thursday.

Far-right a major political force

The vote was a triumph for Kurz, who took over the dusty OeVP in May and has since fashioned it into a youthful, dynamic movement with a new color – turquoise – and a new name, the "Sebastian Kurz list - the new People’s Party" – at least for the election.

Supporters of the People's Party (OeVP) react after first exit polls at an election party in Vienna, Austria October 15, 2017. /Reuters Photo

"We made the impossible possible," Kurz told his supporters on Sunday evening, calling the result a "historic success."

The FPOe also looks likely to match, if not top, its result from 1999 – its best ever – when it entered government alongside the OeVP. "This was an incredible vote of confidence," leader Heinz-Christian Strache told party faithful at a rally after the results came out. "This shows… we are a major factor in Austrian politics."

Whether a repeat of the OeVP-FPOe coalition government is on the cards however remains to be seen.

Heinz-Christian Strache, Christian Kern and Sebastian Kurz attend a TV discussion after Austria's general election in Vienna, Austria, October 15, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said Sunday that the mandate to form a government will go to Kurz. But the new chancellor-in-waiting has not yet indicated which party he will favor as coalition partner.

Much will hang on Thursday's final results, as well as on coalition talks that could take weeks, if not months. The Freedom Party, for instance, has already made getting the post of interior minister, and possibly also foreign minister, a condition for joining the government.

Social Dems fight back, Greens out

For the SPOe, which had been mired in allegations of dirty-campaigning and saw its support drop dramatically in opinion polls ahead of the vote, Sunday’s result was received with a degree of relief.

Supporters of the Social Democratic Party (SPOe) react after first exit polls at an election party in Vienna, Austria October 15, 2017. /Reuters Photo

"Many had already written us off… but we fought back," Kern wrote on Facebook, issuing a new warning "against a lurch to the right," if the OeVP and FPOe build a coalition.

The issue of migrants and secure EU borders dominated the election campaign, with the OeVP treading on FPOe territory in a battle for far-right votes. Kurz repeatedly pointed to his success in closing the so-called Balkan route used by refugees to enter the EU, and called for zero illegal immigration as well as backing a recent burqa ban.

The Freedom Party softened its image but kept up its anti-immigrant, anti-Islam rhetoric, arguing it alone could bring change.

Election campaign posters for the People's Party (OeVP) and the Social Democrats (SPOe) are seen in Vienna, Austria, October 15, 2017. /Reuters Photo

The OeVP and SPOe have ruled Austria together or alone since 1945, usually in a so-called "grand coalition," as is currently the case.

Aside from the big three, two more parties, the liberal NEOS and the new "Peter Pilz list", look to have secured the minimum 4.0 percent to make it into the 183-seat parliament.

In a shock result however, the environmental Greens – Pilz’s former party – received just 3.3 percent according to the preliminary results, leaving it out of parliament for the first time since 1986, following a split within the party.

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