By Francois Murphy and Dave Graham
VIENNA (Reuters) -Austrians voted on Sunday for a brand new parliament with the far-right Freedom Occasion (FPO) aiming to safe its first common election win, which may result in a dispute throughout the European Union over the warfare in Ukraine.
The FPO has led opinion polls for months however its lead over Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s ruling conservative Austrian Individuals’s Occasion (OVP) has now virtually evaporated in a marketing campaign dominated by voter issues over the economic system and immigration.
Whoever wins will fall wanting an absolute majority, polls present, however will declare the correct to guide a coalition authorities.
Polling stations opened simply after daybreak and projections are due minutes after polls shut at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT).
“What’s at stake is whether the FPO will appoint the chancellor or not,” Kathrin Stainer-Haemmerle, political science professor on the Carinthia College of Utilized 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.”
Nehammer casts himself as a statesman and depicts his rival, FPO chief Herbert Kickl, as a poisonous menace. Kickl has styled himself as a defender of Austrian neutrality who will clear up the nation after years of multinational failures.
An FPO victory would make Austria the most recent EU nation to register surging far-right assist after positive aspects in nations together with the Netherlands, France and Germany.
The Eurosceptic FPO, which is vital of Islam and pledges harder guidelines on asylum seekers, gained a nationwide vote for the primary time in June when it beat the OVP by lower than a share level in European elections.
The OVP, which just like the FPO backs harder immigration guidelines and tax cuts, is the one get together open to forming a coalition with the far-right get together. Nevertheless Nehammer says his get together won’t be part of a authorities with Kickl in it.
Sarah Wolf, a 22-year-old graphic designer and Austrian Communist Occasion supporter in Vienna, mentioned tactical voting was value contemplating to maintain the FPO out.
“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 mentioned. “There are just so many really dangerous signs.”
Viktor de Lijzer, a 17-year-old soldier who helps the FPO, mentioned the get together was finest positioned to repair what he noticed as an excessive amount of felony violence spurred by immigration
‘FORTRESS AUSTRIA’
Kickl, 55, has thrived as an opposition firebrand however has at occasions appeared uncomfortable making an attempt to reasonable his tone to widen his management attraction.
President Alexander Van der Bellen, who oversees the formation of governments, has voiced reservations concerning the FPO due to its criticism of the EU and its failure to sentence Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The get together opposes EU sanctions on Moscow, citing Austria’s neutrality.
He has hinted he may thwart Kickl, saying that the structure doesn’t require him to ask the first-placed get together to type a authorities, though that has lengthy been the conference.
The FPO, which desires to cease granting asylum altogether and construct a “fortress Austria” stopping migrants from getting into, was initially led by a former Nazi lawmaker within the Nineteen Fifties.
It has sought to reasonable its picture, however new controversy about its previous surfaced on the weekend, when a video printed by newspaper Der Commonplace confirmed members of the get together attending a funeral the place a track standard with the Nazi SS was sung.
A Jewish scholar group in Vienna then filed a grievance in opposition to FPO members accusing them of breaching anti-Nazi legal guidelines.
The FPO didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.