By Francois Murphy and Dave Graham
VIENNA (Reuters) -Austrian voters handed a first ever general election victory to the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) on Sunday, vote projections showed, underlining rising support for hard-right parties in Europe fueled by concern over immigration levels.
The Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO held a slim lead in opinion polls for months over Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP) in a campaign dominated by immigration and worries about the economy.
Led by Herbert Kickl, the FPO was projected to secure 29.1% of the vote, ahead of the OVP on 26.2%, and the centre-left Social Democrats on 20.4%, a projection by pollster Foresight for broadcaster ORF showed after polls closed.
A separate projection by pollster Arge Wahlen also had the FPO coming first, winning by around 4 percentage points.
The winner will fall short of an absolute majority, but will claim the right to lead a coalition.
If confirmed, Kickl’s victory may prove pyrrhic, as the 55-year-old is a polarising figure under whom other party leaders have refused to serve.
He has given no indication so far he could step aside to ensure his party leads the government.
“What’s at stake is whether the FPO will appoint the chancellor or not,” Kathrin Stainer-Haemmerle, political science professor at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences.
“Should that happen, then I have to say the role of Austria in the European Union would be significantly different. Kickl has often said that (Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orban is a role model for him and he will stand by him.”
FPO PROMISES TOUGHER RULES ON ASYLUM SEEKERS
An FPO victory would make Austria the latest EU country to register surging far-right support after gains in countries including the Netherlands, France and Germany.
The FPO, which is critical of Islam and pledges tougher rules on asylum seekers, won a national vote for the first time in June when it beat the OVP in European elections.
The OVP, which like the FPO backs tougher immigration rules and tax cuts, is the only party open to forming a coalition with the far-right party. However Nehammer says his party will not join a government with Kickl in it.
Sarah Wolf, a 22-year-old graphic designer and Austrian Communist Party supporter in Vienna, said ahead of the vote she was worried what an FPO victory would mean.
“What most scares me if the FPO really does get the most votes is we get something like Viktor Orban: a slow, gradual reduction in media diversity, democracy and understanding,” she said. “There are just so many really dangerous signs.”
Viktor de Lijzer, a 17-year-old soldier who supports the FPO, said the party was best placed to fix what he saw as too much criminal violence spurred by immigration.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy and Dave Graham;Additional reporting by Louis van Boxel-WoolfEditing by Helen Popper, Frances Kerry and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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