Austria shifts to the right -conservatives win, far right gains

 Vienna (dpa), 16 Oct 2017 - Austrian voters opted for a turn to the right on Sunday as young immigration hard-liner Sebastian Kurz and his conservative party won the parliamentary election, while the far right made strong gains.   

Kurz’s conservative People’s Party (OeVP) won 31.6 per cent, 7.6 percentage points more than in the previous 2013 vote.   

“I can promise you today that I will fight for change in this country with all my power,” 31-year-old Kurz told a large crowd of cheering supporters.   

If Foreign Minister Kurz manages to form a coalition cabinet, he would become Europe’s youngest government leader.   

Kurz has been the frontrunner in surveys since May, thanks to his plans to curb immigration by refugees and workers from poorer eastern EU countries.   

The far-right opposition Freedom Party (FPOe), which promoted tough immigration policies long before Kurz shifted to a hard-line approach, gained 5.5 points to win 26 per cent of the votes.