AUSTRIA: Austria's ruling right-wing coalition is likely to remain in office after a collapse in support for the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) in yesterday's general election was offset by a sensational surge in support for its coalition partner, the conservative People's Party (ÖVP).
The ÖVP leader, Mr Wolfgang Schüssel, is certain to remain Chancellor after what he called a "breath-taking result". His party's share of the vote jumped nearly 15 percentage points to 42 per cent, the largest gain of any party in Austrian post-war history.
He said the result showed that the ÖVP was "a true people's party . . . but despite our win we must remain modest".
"Wolfgang Schüssel's reform process, the likes of which has never been seen in Austria, has been confirmed by voters," said Ms Maria Rauch-Kallat, the ÖVP general secretary.
There was a carnival mood in the party's headquarters last night after the first exit poll forecasts.
"It's a phenomenal result," said one euphoric young supporter. "Schüssel has had to put up with a lot these last years but he proved smarter than them all." The Freedom Party attracted just 10 per cent of the vote, a two-thirds drop on its sensational 1999 result, as Austrians tired of the constant infighting among party leaders.
Voters defected to the ÖVP after Mr Schüssel adopted the Freedom Party's anti-immigration stance and wooed the party's popular Finance Minister, Mr Karl-Heinz Grasser.
Mr Schüssel now has 40 more seats in the 183-seat national parliament and was weighing up his options last night. Observers said he was most likely to form another coalition with the weakened Freedom Party. Less likely is a grand coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPÖ) as the junior partner.
Leading figures in the SPÖ ruled out a new grand coalition like the one that ruled Austria for 13 years until 1999.
"We won voters' support and confidence but didn't achieve our electoral target," said Ms Doris Bures, the SPÖ spokeswoman. "Mr Schüssel will put together an ÖVP-FPÖ coalition and continue with this type of politics." Despite slight gains, the SPÖ is now the second-largest party in Austria for the first time since 1966. Before the election, SPÖ party leader Mr Alfred Gusenbauer said his party would only consider forming a government if it remained the strongest party.
The Green Party, a likely coalition partner for the SPÖ, chalked up only a marginal increase in support.
Over 80 per cent of Austria's 5.9 million voters came out for the general election that was called a year early. Mr Schüssel called the snap election when the FPÖ party leader and her party ministers walked out of the government after party founder Mr Jörg Haider organised a rank-and-file party revolt over plans to postpone tax cuts .
A second coalition with the FPÖ is unlikely to cause the same worldwide outrage as in 1999, when the new government found itself a diplomatic pariah for seven months.
Mr Haider resigned as FPÖ leader partly to calm the diplomatic storm, though he remained a key figure in the party, steering policy from behind the scenes. However, he returned to the spotlight in recent months as he grew increasingly impatient with the direction of the FPÖ in government and his job as governor of the state of Carinthia.
Mr Herbert Haupt, the FPÖ leader, said after the results were announced yesterday that he would offer his resignation at today's party meeting.
