Alluding to the Freedom Party’s Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant image among its critics, he said that every vote for the party “is not good for the worldwide reputation of this city”. Final results, not counting absentee voting, were expected later Sunday.
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Austria serves as a transit country for thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa in search of refuge in Germany and Western Europe.
Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache told a large rally outside St Stephen’s Cathedral on Thursday: “Let’s roll up our sleeves and do this, out of love for our home town, out of love for the people of this city!”
Support for the Greens has stayed at 12.2 percent, while the OVP has dipped from 13.3 percent five years ago down to 10 percent.
The Freedom party’s share of the vote has risen significantly both in Vienna and nationally in the past decade to more than 20%, while the Social Democrats and the centre-right People’s party have lost ground in elections.
Also clearing the 5 percent hurdle needed to gain seats in the Vienna legislature were the liberal NEOS, according to the preliminary results.
With another five-year term for his Socialists a virtual certainty, Vienna Mayor Michael Haeupl said he could “could live well” with the results.
Amid growing concern over the migrant crisis, Viennese voters are turning to the FPO in record numbers, and party is now just one point behind the city’s governing socialists – within the margin of error.
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The Social Democratic Party (SPO), which has governed “Red Vienna” ever since much of it lay in ruins after World War Two, secured 39.5 percent of Sunday’s vote, ahead of the Freedom Party on 31 percent, a projection by SORA for ORF indicated. Asked about the importance of Sunday’s elections, he replied “every election is important”.
