The election had increasingly become a personal contest between the mayor of 20 years, Michael Haeupl, who said those seeking refuge should be welcomed in Vienna, and the head of the Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, who has called for Austria to build a border fence to keep migrants out.
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Despite the Socialists holding on to Vienna’s city hall on Sunday with 39.44 percent of the vote, the party also suffered a loss of nearly five percentage points on the last election five years ago.
Voting stations opened at 0500 GMT (1 a.m. EDT) and were to close at 1500 GMT (11 a.m. EDT) Sunday.
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But the far right Freedom Party looks set to claim its strongest result yet, capitalising on fears about migrants and the economy, the BBC’s Bethany Bell in Vienna reports.
The preliminary results showed the Green Party with 11.14%. The victor will be expected to attempt to form a coalition, but all the main parties except the OVP have ruled out an alliance with the FPO.
Also clearing the 5 percent hurdle needed to gain seats in the Vienna legislature was the liberal NEOS, according to the preliminary results. Alluding to the Freedom Party’s anti-immigrant message, he said he remained convinced that people fleeing terror and hunger had to be helped, adding: “That’s what I have stood for in my whole political life”.
“You can not dismiss” the party’s best-ever showing, he told reporters.
The Freedom Party has already made huge gains in several provincial elections this year, at the expense of the Socialists and the centrist People’s Party, but it has not won outright.
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Sunday’s vote was the worst performance for the Social Democrats in Vienna since the second world war, but also a repudiation of its national coalition with the People’s party which has been in place under Chancellor Werner Faymann since 2008.
