Partial results: Anti-immigrant party appears to lose Vienna vote, but scores

A right-wing populist party campaigning on Austrian concerns over mass migration has scored gains in elections for Vienna’s city hall but appears to have fallen short of winning the vote, according to preliminary results.

Opinion polls before the election had forecast a much closer result, with even a victory for the FPOe on the back of unease among voters about Europe’s migrant crisis. The victor will be expected to attempt to form a coalition, but all the main parties except the OVP have ruled out an alliance with the FPO. Losing significant backing was the centrist People’s Party at 9.5 percent, more than 4 percentage points below their 2010 showing. Neos, a liberal party, was on 5-7 percent. Contesting their first Vienna elections, they won 6.2 percent of the vote.

Incumbent Michael Haeupl said he had an “excellent” night’s sleep.

Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache told a large rally outside St Stephen’s Cathedral on Thursday: “Let’s roll up our sleeves and do this, out of love for our home town, out of love for the people of this city!” “You can not dismiss” the party’s best-ever showing, he told reporters.

A win of Sunday’s elections for Vienna’s municipal government by the Freedom Party would end Socialist dominance of the Austrian capital since World War II. Asked about the importance of Sunday’s elections, he replied “every election is important”.

Nevertheless, a strong performance by the FPO would send shockwaves through Austria’s political establishment, with Vienna typically regarded as being so left wing that it has been referred to as the “red city”.

Sunday’s vote was the worst performance for the Social Democrats in Vienna since the second world war, but also a repudiation of its national coalition with the People’s party which has been in place under Chancellor Werner Faymann since 2008.