Clear victory for Sebastian Kurz’s Austrian People’s Party

Exit polls released following Austria’s parliamentary elections have shown a clear victory for Sebastian Kurz’s Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), strong gains for the Greens, and significant losses for the right-wing populist Freedom Party. 

According to Sunday’s exit polls, the ÖVP garnered 37.2 percent of the vote, marking an increase of 5.7 percentage points compared to elections in 2017. The Social Democrat Party of Austria saw sizable losses, receiving 22.0 of the vote, marking a decrease of 4.9 percentage from 2017. This is the worst the SPÖ has ever fared in a National Council Election. The Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) hemorrhaged the most support of any party, sliding down to 16.0 percent from 26.0 in the previous election. 
 
The Green Party saw the largest gains with the exit polls showing a 14.3 percent result, marking a 10.5 percent increase from the last national election

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“The result is unbelievable,” Kurz said in response to the results. “I’m overwhelmed and almost speechless.”

The disastrous result for the FPÖ is more than likely due to the effects of the Ibiza scandal that shook the party to its core, leading Heinz-Christian Strache, the party’s former leader, to step down as Vice-Chancellor and as the leader of the party just before the European Elections.

The Ibiza scandal initiated a series of events that ended in the collapse of the OVP-FPÖ coalition government. After the news of the scandal broke, FPÖ Interior Minister Herbert Kickl was forced to resign. This then resulted in the resignation of all of the FPÖ’s ministers, which sparked a confidence vote, which ultimately ended Kurz’s premiership.

In response to the exit poll numbers, FPÖ General-Secretary Harald Vilimsky stated that he was unhappy with the result, “we have to make a fresh start.”
 
If exit poll results remain relatively unchanged, Kurz will have several options to form a ruling coalition. His party will be able to either form a coalition with the Greens or it could choose to renew its coalition deal with the populist Freedom Party.