The right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is on course for victory in the parliamentary election held in Austria on Sunday, according to exit polls conducted among those leaving the polling stations. The general secretary of the party called the result historic.
According to the survey published after the closing of the polling stations - carried out by the polling company Foresight on behalf of the ORF public service television - the opposition FPÖ, led by Herbert Kickl, was able to obtain 29.1 percent of the votes. In second place is Chancellor Karl Nehammer's conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) with 26.2 percent of the vote. The Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) can claim 20.4 percent of the votes. According to the exit poll, the liberal NEOS (New Austria and Liberal Forum) won 8.8 percent, while the Greens won 8.6 percent.
In the meantime, Nehammer admitted that his party, the ÖVP, was inferior to the FPÖ. At the same time, the People's Party chancellor tried to emphasize the positive that the ÖVP managed to fight back "from where some people already saw us, namely in political insignificance". He stated: they will not give up the fight.
Nehammer emphasized that the successes must be recognized at the same time, and thus their future task will be to understand "why the radicals get more votes" in the ÖVP, which - as he put it - represents the political center and rationality in comparison to the FPÖ represents.
Christian Stocker, secretary general of the ÖVP, stated that the Austrian People's Party will not govern jointly with the FPÖ led by Kickl.
Michael Schnedlitz, the general secretary of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, was extremely satisfied with the party's best result in the federal elections in its history, as well as the fact that the FPÖ came first in a parliamentary election for the first time.
The Austrians wrote history, Schnedlitz said in a statement to ORF and thanked the voters and party chairman Kickl, whom he praised as the driving force behind the renewal of recent years.
In a later statement to ORF, Kickl thanked his voters "for their foresight, courage and trust", as he said, the voters "have spoken with power" for his party, which for him means that they do not have to change their program.
According to Kickl, the parties that ruled out a possible coalition under his personal leadership – that is, above all the ÖVP and the SPÖ – should reconsider their position. He emphasized that he is ready for coalition negotiations with all parties.
MTI
Cover photo: Herbert Kickl, leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ)
Source: MTI/EPA/Daniel Novotny
