Austria: terrific health care and education system, low crime, massive UN presence, prosperous business community thanks to Eastern bloc, Vienna with 50%+ non-German speakers truly cosmopolitan, enormous political choice, no aristocracy, rent stability, low house price inflation. Love it!

Kate, Vienna,

I'm English and lived in Vienna for 10 years. The 500,000 people who moved to the extreme right since the previous election are not suddenly xenophobic. They are protesting against the grand coalitions failure. Its a pity the greens & liberals cant be more inspirational to give them another outlet

Stephen, Vienna, Austria

I quite like the sound of Austria....

beau symons, st emo,

The results have only been out for a few hours and already the liberal lefties who have brought western countries to their knees with immigration and alien culture are tut-tutting and trying to work out how to punish the naughty Austrians who dare to challenge their unwanted multiculturalism.

Charles Hamilton, Darwen, England

the Austrian villages and towns led a relatively crime free existence until the doors opened and allowed some of the more Southern countries in. Austria's own politics encourage freedom of expression and customs to outsiders however the Austrian people pick up the tab as in the UK

eddie, earsdon, uk

My wife and I just returned from Enns Austria a month ago. This country is rich in history (Melk comes to mind) and we were blessed to be in the town square at Hotel Brunner and enjoy the people of this beautiful town. Stay true to conservative values for your family and your children

William Russell, Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Hey - I'm an Englishman - I fancy being "exotic" - wow sounds great!!! Then again, if there are no robbings, rape, ram-raids etc...boring stuff - better stick to a "modern" city eh?

Tim, Wellington, England

True Austria tried to hide its guilt about wanting Hitler...But also true very few people living now were involved there.

It is the nature of the people and country to want past glory if you can call subjugation glory.

Maybe Austria is caught up with its poster campaign for tourists?

Whatever it is ...there is no Hitler to help their ambitions.

Frank Madigan, Capreol, Canada

Austria is in many ways the Saudi Arabia of the West. Many of her people firmly believe in the triumphalism of a particular culture and tradition. This has led to a unique narrowness of perspective and xenophobia. The rest of the world has largely - but by no means entirely - moved on.

Somnath Mukhopadhyay, Brighton, UK

Very heartening to see the far right do so well in the Austrian election. Let's hope it is a precursor to political developments across Europe in the next few years. Many congratulations to Mr Strache.

Mike, Norwich,

To Timur, London: The Nazi party was NOT "born" in Vienna. Hitler had emigrated to Germany and joined the party there. (His last residence in Austria had been an asylum for the homeless...). The NSDAP was prohibited in Austria throughout most of the 1930s, when many Brits sympathised with Hitler.

Andreas, Penrith, UK

It is a worrying result but what do you expect? The governing class across Europe (including the UK) is out of touch with its electorate - almost disconnected from the electorate, The electorate, fed up and bittterly frustrated, will respond by voting for extremist parties.

Carol, London, UK

No doubt the EU will want Austria and Ireland to vote again until they get it right.

KW, Bognor Regis, England

It is silly to blame Nazism for the fact, that 40 % of the voters younger than 30 years have voted for the extreme right parties FPOE and BZOE.
The authoritarian structure of society, xenophobia and enmity v EU are the main reasons..

Karl Pfeifer, Vienna, Austria

Austria is a sovereign, democratic country. Only the electors can decide how their country should be run. Besides, the Austrians say what other countries are afraid to say!!!

Pamela, Munich, Germany

Agree with comments to the effect that Austria is a democracy; the will of their people must be respected. That the EU is unlikely to do so is more dangerous than any revival of the far right in a small country. Anthony in Dublin is right to spot the common thread.

Andrew Forbes, Thames Ditton, Surrey

austria was always a multinational empire.every 2nd austrian has slavonic surname. empire consisted of czechs,hungarians,austrians,poles and ukrainians.but well they all were christians with similar to austrians mentality.it is not a questions of just foreigners it is a question of integration

Sketch, Rotterdam, Netherlands

as a green voter i can only guess what made them think it's time for something "new": strache and haider provide easy solutions for complex problems and as most ppl have no interest or education in politics, economics etc. this is very attractive in times of recession and rising immigration rates

Teresa, Vienna, Austria

This result got nothing to do with history and little with latent xenophobia. It is mostly a reaction to the circumstances which lead to this election. The result is an expression of protest. As Austria is still a democracy, this has to be accepted.

Chris Moser, Neunkirchen, Austria

Over the years i have met many germans and austrians and there is no arguing with the fact that whilst germany has faced up to its past, austria has most assuredly not.

Alex, London,

Mentioning Hitler and Fritz as example Austrians and saying "What did you expect from people like that?" (as I've read a few times since Sunday), is not only beside the point, but a generalisation just as bad as those coming from Strache et al about "foreigners".
Still, the results are a shame...

Anna, Vienna, Austria

are the austrians not allowed to cast their own votes and decide who should govern their country? are they not allowed to decide who should sort out their national problems.
this is of a piece with the interference in the Irish referendum by an out of touch, arrogant, Euro political elite

Anthony , Dublin, Ireland

Have you ever thought that this might not just be a result of xenophobia, but a reaction against the left wing liberal elite that thinks it has the right to rule Europe and dictate to the rest of us what we should and should not believe?

Andrew Brown, derby, uk

I drive throuh Austria once or twice a year, If the they got rid of foerigners who would clean the toilets in the OMV petrol statios ? Every cleaner I've heard speak is Russian ! The austrians are very conservative. I am surprised its only 30% voting nazi.

andy anderson, rousse, bulgaria

Blaming this shift to the right on Australia's past is simply blinkered. This shift to the right is happening across Europe and is a direct result of the political elite being out of touch with how people feel about large numbers of immigrants settling in their countries. Things will only worst.

D Case, Newquay,

Mike needs to get out of London a bit more often and see what he finds in the little villages in the UK. Having lived somewhere in Austria that Mike finds "dull, narrow minded and utterly provincial" (Salzburg) for one year, I'd have to say Austria has its quirks, but so does every country.

David G, Coogee, Sydney, Australia

Austria suffered horribly at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1529 and 1683 - it's not surprising that some Austrians regard high levels of immigration from outside the EU with suspicion.

Philip, Wellingborough, UK

Politics is not one dimensional. One factor in the move to the right is economic, not xenophobic. Austria has high, almost Scandinavian, levels of personal taxation. Jörg Haider has lobbied for a flat-tax system, which, it is argued, has worked wonders for neighbouring Slovakia.

Jonathan Nicholas, Vienna, Austria

Yeah the result is pretty bad, but lets be political correct and not attack austria totally. 30% is too much, way too much. but nevertheless the socialist party had the majority of the votes and there are still Austrians like me who don't agree with this methods of controlling immigrants at all.

shany, Graz, Austria

Oh oh, Austria is soooo bad, and there are "xenophobe" parties because they want to control immigration?
Well, lets look at a few facts: about 15% of Austrias population was born abroad - but just about 5% of Britains population! I really wonder what would happen in the UK if you triple this number

Tom, Twickenham,

Hitler was Austrian, like many of the top Nazis, most of the concentration camp staff, and twice as many Austrians enrolled in to the SS than Germans. The Nazi Party was born in Vienna!

some things never change

Timur, London,