Stronach’s Austrian political bid gains ground
But populist campaign of Canadian auto parts magnate doesn’t derail ruling coalition
VIENNA— Austria’s two biggest political parties, according to exit polls, made their worst showings in decades in the national election on Sunday, losing votes to an array of smaller parties, including one founded by Canadian auto parts billionaire Frank Stronach.
But the two big parties — the Social Democrats and the Austrian People’s Party — appeared likely to retain enough seats in Parliament to stay in power.
The two have dominated Austrian politics since the end of the Second World War. Their “grand coalition” government has governed this prosperous nation of some eight million people for five years, shepherding it through the aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Bros. in 2008 and the subsequent crisis in the17-nation eurozone.
Each appears to have received less support than in any previous election since 1945.
By contrast, the rightist Freedom Party made significant gains. So did the Greens and Team Stronach, the party founded by Stronach, who holds dual Canadian-Austrian citizenship.
Stronach spent an undisclosed amount of his personal fortune from his Magna empire on saturation advertising during the campaign. Anew pro-business party appeared to have cleared the 4-per-cent hurdle needed to gain seats in the new parliament in its first attempt. The new party, known as NEOS, in German short for New Austria, was the surprise of the day. After the leader of the group, Matthias Strolz, could not make himself heard over the cheers of supporters at an election-night rally, he told the state television network ORF that “we want to bring this kind of lively action” into the 183-seat Parliament. Analysts said the most likely outcome of the election would be a continuation of the grand coalition. But Claus Pandi, political editor of Kronenzeitung, the country’s largest newspaper, noted along with others that voters had shown little enthusiasm for the arrangement. Stronach ran on a vaguely populist platform, presenting himself as an honest man of the people to a public tired of corrupt politicians and hungry for change. “We need new ideas. We need new values. We can do it. We are the best,” he told reporters a year ago as he launched his campaign. “I am not a politician. We are a movement, an Austrian movement,” he told the packed news conference, speaking German with an English accent. (Stronach, 81, left Austria for Canada after the war.)
The exit polls suggested that the Social Democratic party would win about 53 seats in the new legislature, and the People’s Party 46, giving them a comfortable majority of 99, down from 108 in the outgoing Parliament.
The polls suggested the Freedom Party would gain 4 seats, to 42; the Greens 2 seats, to 22; and Team Stronach appeared set to win 11 seats, a gain of 6. The new party, NEOS, would win 9 seats. With files from Reuters