Austria voters likely to shift toward far-right

People’s Party head Kurz, 31, expected to take chancellorship

Austria, buffeted by the growing anti-immigration sentiment that shook presidential elections last year, is poised to elect a new lower chamber of parliament Sunday that is likely to tilt to the far-right.

Polls indicated that the People’s Party (OVP), led by 31year-old foreign minister Sebastian Kurz, would win about a third of the vote in the election for the National Council and become the new chancellor. The far-right Freedom Party (FPO), mostly founded by former Nazis in 1956, is likely to pick up at least a quarter of the

vote.

Kurz shot to prominence by transforming his party, which has dominated post-war Austrian politics for more than 70

years, into a decidedly nationalistic and anti-immigrant party.

Now he is feeling pressure to his right. The Freedom Party, which had hovered on the fringes of Austrian politics, has become a playmaker with its even harsher anti-refugee, anti-migrant and anti-establishment message under leader HeinzChristian Strache, who has called for a ban on “fascistic Islam.”

The party shocked the country — and Europe — last year when its presidential candidate, Norbert Hofer, narrowly lost a bid for the Austrian presidency.

Taking up his party’s anti-establishment message, party leader Strache opened his final campaign speech in Vienna with a taunting message: “We don’t want morons in our government!”

With polls among the 6.4 million voters showing the only other major party, the centerleft Social Democrats (SPO), in third place, Kurz may well bring the Freedom Party into a ruling coalition in the 183-member council, parliament’s dominant lower chamber, and cement the far-right policies. That would relegate incumbent Chancellor Christian Kern, chairman of the Social Democrats, into opposition for five years.

The Social Democrats and People’s Party, part of the current ruling coalition, agreed on the early elections after months of bickering. In 2015, Austria took in about 90,000 asylumseekers, mainly Syrian Muslims. Growing political pressure prompted Austria last year to tell the European Union that it did not want to accept any more refugees.

Sebastian Kurz shot to prominence by transforming his People’s Party into a decidedly nationalistic party.

VALDRIN XHEMAJ, EPA-EFE A woman passes an election poster Saturday for Austria’s Sebastian Kurz, leader of the People’s Party.