The far Right has made a grand return in Austria, emerging from yesterday’s elections as the second biggest parliamentary block, according to preliminary results.

The two parties that campaigned on an anti-immigrant and anti-European Union ticket have captured about 29 per cent of the vote, pushing the country’s traditional conservative party into third place.

Heinz-Christian Strache and his Freedom Party, who were accused of xenophobia and waging an antiMuslim campaign, won 18 per cent — a rise of 7 per cent compared with the last elections. Mr Strache’s former mentor, Jörg Haider, won 11 per cent of the vote with his new party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria.

The mainstream parties recorded their lowest share of the vote since the Second World War, with the Social Democrats dropping 7 per cent to 29.7 per cent, while the conservative People’s Party won 25.6 per cent of the vote — a decline of 9 per cent compared with 2006.

The far Right block could still nudge ahead of the Social Democrats when the final result is published after all the postal votes are counted on October 6.

A throaty roar filled the Freedom Party’s election tent in Vienna when the results flashed up on a screen. The crowd — mainly young and middle-aged men drinking beer — punched the air in triumph. They cheered more when Mr Strache announced that his party would only join a government that was led by himself.

Many Viennese were horrified by such a prospect, however. “It is disappointing that so many Austrians agreed to what was basically a xenophobic campaign,” said Adelheid Mayr, 39. “I am ashamed of the results and I hope none of the far Right parties will be allowed to rule the country.”

The elections, held two years early, were precipitated by constant squabbling within the grand coalition of the Social Democrats and the People’s Party. Austrian voters seemingly punished both parties for their inability to govern together.

Analysts believe that the surge of the far Right reflects the voters’ dissatisfaction with the failure of the two mainstream parties to provide a functioning government. Their success also owes much to rising anxieties over immigration and the influence of the European Union.

Anton Pelinka, one of the country’s most prominent political analysts, told The Times: “In Austria there has never been a clear distinction between the far Right and the mainstream political parties. Unlike in other countries, there has never been a cordon sanitaire. Extreme positions have become more and more socially acceptable over the years.”

In 2000 Mr Haider’s Freedom Party was invited into a coalition government after winning 27 per cent of the vote. The move sparked EU sanctions against Austria.

According to Professor Pelinka, the far Right could enter government again. He said that the most probable outcome was another grand coalition, but the Social Democrats could try governing with Mr Strache’s Freedom Party. Another alternative is a minority government of the Social Democrats with support from the Freedom Party and other smaller parties. Mr Strache, 39, the biggest winner of the day, had sought to exploit fear of foreigners and Islam during his campaign.

Speaking at his final election rally in Vienna’s working-class district of Favoriten on Friday, he said that people were scared to see women in burkas running around “like female Ninjas”, and added: “Many decent people have come here and they integrated: Poles, Hungarians, Croats and also Serbs. We are all European brothers because we do not want to become Islamised.” His disdain for Islam extends to culinary matters. “One should not roast mutton in council flats. I would also not grill a wild pig in Istanbul,” he has declared.

Mr Strache has attacked the EU with equal venom, railing at “the capitalists and the neo-liberals” who were turning common people into “slave workers of the European Union”.

Mr Strache’s rally in Vienna last week was marred by a violent confrontation between hundreds of left-wing opponents and his far Right supporters, some of whom were jackbooted skinheads. The police had to separate the two sides.

— Germany was rocked by a political earthquake yesterday as the ruling conservatives in Bavaria lost their absolute majority for the first time in half a century in a regional election disaster that spells trouble for the Chancellor, Angela Merkel (David Crossland writes). Bavaria’s Christian Social Union party, a pillar of Ms Merkel’s power, suffered an almost 18-point slump to about 43 per cent.

Hands-on approach

— Heinz-Christian Strache was born on June 12, 1969, in Vienna

— He trained as a dental technician, began his political career in 1991 as a Vienna district councillor for the Freedom Party, and became a protégé of its leader, Jörg Haider

— He fell out with Mr Haider after a series of election defeats and took over the Freedom Party in 2005 Mr Strache has cultivated a youthful image. His website has pictures of him wearing a Che Guevara-style beret, with a rap song, Viva HC!, downloadable as a mobile phone ringtone

— Old photos resurfaced in 2007 showing him in paramilitary uniform apparently giving a neo-Nazi salute (above). He said that he was merely ordering three beers

— The Freedom Party demands a halt to immigration, a ministry for repatriating foreigners and the return of powers ceded to the EU

Sources: Reuters, US State Department

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