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28. 09. 08. - 17:00

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28. 09. 08. - 17:00

Far Right make big gains in Austrian elections

Austria has once again lurched to the right in a national election that saw sweeping gains for the practitioners of extreme politics.

The big winner was Heinz-Christian Strache of the Freedom Party - a man who wants to legalise Nazi symbols and in the past has organised ceremonies to honour SS veterans.

Exit polls show his party garnered 18.2 per cent of the vote - in third place behind the socialist and conservatives.  This is up from just over 11 per cent in the 2006 election and could propel them back into a power-sharing government.

Jörg Haider, the former FPÖ leader and now at the head of the rightist Alliance for the Future of Austria, won 11.18 per cent of the vote.  With 30 per cent of the vote combined - and with the mainstream conservative VP party wining 25.3 per cent - the possibility looms of a centre-right and far-right coalition government.

The far-right party gains are even better than in 1999 when the FPÖ won 27 per cent of the vote and stepped up into national government - to the dismay of the world.

The Social Democrats won less with 28.6 per cent of the vote, but a government with the ÖVP is not guaranteed.  Once again, the spectre looms of the tiny Alpine nation risking the world's wrath with an administration that includes people who admire the Nazis and some of their policies.

In the days to come there will the traditional horse-trading in Vienna as party leaders decide what will be best for them and their supporters.

The socialists and conservatives combined would have over 54 per cent of the vote - the conservatives and the two far-right parties around the same.  Postal votes still have to be counted and the consensus is on the right having the edge.

The socialists, if the conservatives opt out of a coalition, would be unable to rule with the support of the environmental Green Party alone as it scored just 10.1 percent.

Strache, 38, who was once dubbed Jörg Haider without the charm or the brains, appealed to a strong nationalistic and xenophobic streak in his countrymen with slogans like "Vienna must not become Istanbul."

He promised more rights, more welfare, more social security – but ‘for Austrian citizens only.'

Others have too many rights that should be stripped away to finance more benefits for Austrians. He has pledged to stop Austrian boys facing ‘pig eater' taunts at school, and Austrian girls from "being fondled by hordes of immigrants."

Ironically, second-generation immigrants who consider themselves Austrians, are thought to have voted for him in large numbers, identifying themselves as stalwart citizens and keen to keep new immigrants out. 

It is not yet known what impact the 200,000 16 and 17-year-old voters had on the election- the first time such young people in a land of 6.3 million voters were allowed to have their say.

austriantimes.at

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