Heinz-Christian Strache

Austria moves right in Sunday's general election

Published by carolyn on Sun, 2017-10-15 16:09

Election night party taking place at the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) headquarters in Vienna on Sunday, Oct. 15. Heinz-Christian Strache's party will be in either 2nd or a strong third place once the final tally is completed, sometime after tomorrow, Monday, Oct. 16.


By Carolyn Yeager

UPDATE: Final vote results: ÖVP - 31.5%=62 parliamentary seats. SPÖ - 26.9%=52 seats.  FPÖ - 26.0% =51 seats. NEOS - 5.3%= 10 seats. PILZ - 4.4%= 8 seats.


SUNDAY'S VOTE IN AUSTRIA TURNED OUT WELL for the populist, anti-immigrant Freedom Party (FPÖ), even if not as great as we might have hoped. Hans-Christian Strache's party has just pulled ahead of the  Social Democratic party (SPÖ) for the first time. The People's Party (ÖVP) has won with around 31% of the vote.

The FPÖ is now almost a point ahead of the SPÖ, although this may change by mid-week when all the "postal" ballots (mail-in) are counted. They sometimes tend to favor the SPÖ. Here is an active page with charts and maps showing who voted for whom. At this time, it's showing Sebastion Kurz' People's Party with 31.4% of the vote, the Social Democrats (currently in power) with 26.7, and the Freedom Party with 27.4%.

Category 

Austria, Immigration

FPÖ files legal challenge against result of May presidential election

Published by carolyn on Wed, 2016-06-08 14:15

Norbert Hofer (left) and Alexander Van der Bellen share the stage during the Austrian Presidential election campaign in May.


GOOD NEWS! A CHALLENGE TO THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RUNOFF, in which Alexander Van der Bellen was delcared the winner, was filed today by Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Heinz-Christian Strache,

As you recall, it was the postal ballots that pushed former leader of the Green Party, Van der Bellen - who ran as an independent - over the line to defeat FPÖ candidate Norbert Hofer. The margin of victory was under 1 percentage point, or roughly 31,000 votes.

Strache filed an official challenge at the Constitution Court, saying “Without these glitches, irregularities and breaking of laws, Hofer could have become president. I think a re-election is very realistic."

We're on the move! Austrian Freedom Party presidential candidate Hofer wins big in first round

Published by carolyn on Sun, 2016-04-24 20:24

Norbert Hofer, presidential candidate of the "right-wing populist" FPÖ [Austrian Freedom Party led by Heinz-Christian Strache] has won over 36 percent of the vote in a five-way contest that included the major parties!

Exit polls show that the two candidates nominated by the ruling parties failed to even make it to the runoff to be held May 22. This is the first time since 1945 that Austria's president will not come from the Social Democrats (SPOe) or the center-right People's Party (OeVP). Both party's candidates won only around 11 percent.

Independent Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, 72 (pictured right) did manage to advance to the second and final round with 21 percent of the vote. The independent candidate from the bourgeois NEOS Irmgard Griss got 18.5 percent of the vote.

It is a turning point in Austrian politics, with the best-ever performance for the Freedom Party at the federal level since its creation after World War II.