Coalitie Oostenrijk herkozen, maar anti-EU-partijen winnen (en)

Berlin - Austria's centrist coalition led by Chancellor Werner Faymann scored a razor-thin majority in Sunday's (29 September) elections, with anti-EU populists and right-wing nationalists boosting their ranks in the Alpine country.

The two main centrist parties - Faymann's Social Democrats (SPO) and the centre-right People's Party (OVP) - together got only 50.9 percent of the vote, their worst score since the Second World War.

The vote is enough to remake the grand coalition that has been governing Austria since 2008, but OVP chief and foreign minister Michael Spindelegger is suggesting tough negotiations as he does not rule out talks with other parties.

"Voters gave us a warning note. We cannot carry on as before," Spindelegger said.

Meanwhile, populist anti-EU parties have grown to a combined 27 percent in a country where people can vote from the age of 16 and stand as candidates once they are 18.

The anti-euro, anti-immigrant Freedom Party (FPO) scored its best result ever, with 21.4 percent of the vote, under the leadership of 44-year old Heinz-Christian Strache, whom supporters call "HC."

Strache, who is similar in style to the late right-wing nationalist Joerg Haider, appeals to young and rural voters with his simple discourse emphasising the rights of Austrians over immigrants, the illegality of euro-bailouts and his country's possibility to quit the euro.

Haider's party, BZO, failed to make it into the parliament, scoring only 3.6 percent.

But a new populist party led by 81-year old businessman Frank Stronach managed to enter with 5.8 percent of the vote. "Team Stronach" campaigned on splitting the euro along national lines, "because a German or Austrian euro is worth more than a Greek one" and having the death penalty reintroduced for "professional hit men."

Another newcomer to the Austrian parliament is the liberal Neos party, which scored 4.8 percent of the vote - over the four-percent threshold to make it into the legislature. The Greens are also represented in the parliament, having garnered 11.5 percent of the vote.