A minor earthquake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale shook Vienna yesterday, hours after a major political earthquake rocked the Alpine republic.
Austria’s jubilant far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) pronounced the postwar political system dead after its presidential candidate, Norbert Hofer, topped the poll in the first round of voting on Sunday.
Mr Hofer, a leading FPÖ strategist and migration critic, described his 36.7 per cent result as a political “rendezvous with history”.
“We know that the old system is on its way out,” he said after voters shunned candidates put forward by Austria’s ruling Social Democrats (SPÖ) and conservative People’s Party (ÖVP).
Coming in second was Alexander van der Bellen, backed by the Greens, on 19.7 per cent. An independent candidate, Irmgard Griss, was on 18.8 per cent.
Should Mr Hofer tops the poll in a second round on May 22nd, it will be the first time since 1945 that Austria will not have a president backed by either the SPÖ or ÖVP.
The two parties have spent much of the postwar era sharing power but, in recent years, have slid behind the FPÖ in polls. The FPÖ is now Austria’s strongest political party.
Its leader Heinz-Christian Strache, a protege of the late Jörg Haider, said Austria was facing into a “new political era” of wider gains for populist parties across Europe.
“One thing has become clear here: a huge and massive dissatisfaction with the government,” said Mr Strache.
No Islam
Mr Hofer, viewed as one of the FPÖ’s more moderate figures, campaigned with the slogans “Austria first” and “Islam doesn’t belong to Austria”.
If elected, he has promised to push for more direct democracy, including a referendum on the TTIP transatlantic trade deal, and a complete closure of Austrian borders.
The FPÖ’s rise and rise in recent months, catalysed by the migration crisis, prompted Vienna’s grand coalition to take a tougher line on migration. But political analysts said yesterday that their efforts to copy the Freedom Party had failed dramatically.
Despite the setback, SPÖ leader and Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann ruled out standing down.
Despite the FPÖ’s surprise win, analysts say a victory for Mr Hofer on May 22nd is still far from certain. A rise in voter turnout – and mainstream backing for the Green alternative – could yet block the party’s takeover of Vienna’s Hofburg palace.
But Sunday’s result has shaken up Austria’s political landscape, with election analysis showing 72 per cent of working class voters – traditionally SPÖ supporters – now behind the populist FPÖ.
