Far-right to win Austria poll, projections show

Austrian voters handed a first ever general election victory to the far-right Freedom Party on Sunday, vote projections showed, underlining rising support for hard-right parties in Europe fuelled by concern over immigration levels.

The Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO held a slim lead in opinion polls for months over Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP) in a campaign dominated by immigration and worries about the economy.

Led by Herbert Kickl, the FPO was projected to secure 29.1 per cent of the vote, ahead of the OVP on 26.2 per cent, and the centre-left Social Democrats on 20.4 per cent, a projection by pollster Foresight for broadcaster ORF showed after polls closed.

A separate projection by pollster Arge Wahlen also had the FPO coming first, winning by around 4 percentage points, a bigger winning margin than final polling had indicated.