Austrians to elect parliament
Campaigns focus on concerns about Islam, immigration
VIENNA — Wrapping up a bruising political campaign season, Austrian political parties were counting down to an election today that has focused on voter concerns over immigration and Islam.
The vote is coming a year ahead of schedule after squabbles led to the breakup last spring of the coalition government of the Social Democrats and the People’s Party. A total of 16 parties are vying for 183 seats in the national parliament and will be chosen by Austria’s 6.4 million eligible voters. But fewer than a dozen parties have a chance of getting seats.
The People’s Party, which has shifted from centrist to right-wing positions, was widely expected to score the most seats after an image makeover by its leader, 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz.
Austria’s traditionally rightwing, anti-migrant Freedom Party is expected to come in second, and the center-left Social Democrats are thought to be trailing in third place.
Others that may clear the 4 percent hurdle needed to get seats in parliament are the Greens, the New Austria and Liberal Forum, and Pilz’s List, founded and led by former Greens politician Peter Pilz.
The People’s and Freedom parties have benefited from the distrust of migrants and Muslims among many Austrian voters.
The 2015 influx of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the war in Syria and poverty elsewhere into the EU’s prosperous heartland left Austria with nearly 100,000 new and mostly Muslim migrants. That has fueled fears that Austria’s traditional Western and Christian culture is in danger. As a result, voters are receptive to the anti-migrant platforms of both the People’s Party and the Freedom Party.
Although the Social Democrats have come either first or second in elections since World War II, voters are now more receptive to calls for tougher migration rules than the party’s focus on social justice.
“I’m of course pro-migration and that many people can come to us, but at some point we have to stop,” student Janine Leitner, 21, said Saturday in Vienna.
The Social Democrats are also fighting charges of dirty campaigning after Israeli political adviser Tal Silberstein posted on Facebook suggesting that People’s Party head Kurz was anti-Semitic. Silberstein has been fired and insists that Social Democratic Chancellor Christian Kern knew nothing about the postings.
Kern says his party will go into the opposition if it does not win today. With a handful of other parties struggling to just get into parliament, the most likely post-vote scenario is a People’s Party-Freedom Party coalition that would shift the government significantly to the right.
But other coalitions are possible, depending on the results of today’s vote.
While Europe’s centrist governments could view a rightward shift with some concern, architect Bernhard Egelmuller didn’t think there would be any major negative international fallout if the Freedom Party does join the next Austrian government.
“Right-wing parties in governments … exist in other European states as well,” said the 60-year-old. “It has proven to be less dramatic than anticipated.”