Elections in Austria

The initial results show significant gains for parties such as Alternative for Germany, the FPÖ in Austria & a sharp rise for Geert Wilders' party - "Waterloo" for Macron with 15% while Le Pen's is at 32%

Even in Austria, Serbs felt like outcasts, Markovic said. "No politician would publicly support the Serbs."

That is, until Heinz-Christian Strache's far-right Freedom Party made an unlikely play for the votes of the second largest national minority in Austria.

Austria's new coalition government between conservatives and the far right has been sworn in in Vienna, reported BBC. 

The Freedom Party (FPÖ) - the junior partner - is the only far-right party to get into power in the EU.

The FPÖ and People's Party (ÖVP) plan to implement stricter rules for asylum seekers, after immigration proved a major concern for Austrian voters.

 Austria's conservatives and right-wing populists on Friday agreed to form a coalition government nearly seven weeks after the October 15 election, Deutsche Welle reports. 

People's Party (ÖVP) leader Sebastian Kurz will become the next chancellor and Freedom Party (FPÖ) head Heinz-Christian Strache will become vice-chancellor.

 Two months after the election, 31-year-old conservative People's Party (OVP) leader Sebastian Kurz is expected to finalise coalition talks on Friday and form a new government with the hard-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) led by Heinz-Christian Strache, reported EUObserver .

Austrians are voting in a general election in which the frontrunner, conservative People's Party (ÖVP) leader Sebastian Kurz, is just 31.

The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) and Social Democrats are competing for second place, opinion polls suggest.

The Social Democrats led the outgoing coalition with the ÖVP.

The head of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) on Jan. 14 called for a law banning "fascistic Islam" and Muslim symbols, comparable to an existing law banning Nazi symbols, saying Islam could wipe out European society. 

Austria needs "a law which prohibits fascistic Islam," Heinz Christian Strache told several thousand supporters at the party's new year meeting in Salzburg. 

Norbert Hofer the candidate of Austria's Freedom Party, is set to lose the presidential election rerun that is being held on Sunday, exit polls show.

His opponent Alexander Van der Bellen, a former head of the Green party, is leading, according to estimates cited by daily newspaper Die Presse.

VIENNA - Alexander van der Bellen, who is contesting Austria's presidential elections as an independent Green, says that as head of state, he will work to support the Western Balkans on the road to the EU and calls on Austrians of Serbian origin to support him on the road to opening the country's economy to the world and to prosperity.
    

Austria's far right won more than a third of the vote in the presidential election on April 24 and will face an independent in next month's run-off, dumping out the country's two main parties from the post for the first time.