Socialists hold on to Vienna city hall despite upsurge in popularity for anti-immigrant party

VIENNA – The Socialist party held on to Vienna city hall in a municipal election on Sunday, fighting off a challenge from a right-wing populist party campaigning on Austrian concerns over mass migration.

But the win was coupled with a loss in support. With all votes except absentee ballots counted, the Socialists received 39.44 per cent of the ballot, down nearly five percentage points. The Freedom Party had 32.26 per cent, up more than six percentage points from the last election five years ago.

The result leaves the Socialists in position to continue governing the Austrian capital in coalition. Still, they give the Freedom Party its best ever result in Vienna. They also reflect voter anxiety about the thousands of migrants entering Austria daily as they flee conflict in the Mideast and elsewhere.

The preliminary results showed the Green party with 11.14 per cent. That would leave them in position to remain as the Socialist coalition partners. Losing significant backing was the centrist People’s Party at 8.7 per cent, more than 5 percentage points below their 2010 showing.

Also clearing the 5 per cent hurdle needed to gain seats in the Vienna legislature were the liberal NEOS, according to the preliminary results. Contesting their first Vienna election, they won 5.95 per cent of the vote.

With another five-year term for his Socialists a certainty, Vienna Mayor Michael Haeupl said he “could live well” with the results. Alluding to the Freedom Party’s anti-immigrant message, he said he remains convinced that people fleeing terror and hunger have to be helped, adding “that’s what I have stood for in my whole political life.”

Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache also said he was satisfied.

“You cannot dismiss” the party’s best-ever showing, he told reporters.

Polls ahead of the vote had shown the Socialists in front with more than a third of the vote, but with the Freedom Party close behind and concerns about the uncontrolled daily influx of thousands of migrants fleeing violent world regions the top concern of the electorate.

While 67.6 per cent of the electorate voted five years ago, the estimated turnout for Sunday’s vote stood at 74 per cent, including still to be counted absentee ballots.

Analysts said Strache’s portrayal of the election as a “revolution” and a “duel” with Haeupl, as well as his party’s anti-migrant message, helped the Socialists win by a larger-than-projected margin. Even as many traditional Socialist voters turned to the Freedom Party to further erode traditional blue-collar Socialist support, many people who normally don’t vote Socialist — or don’t vote at all — did so this time to prevent a Freedom Party triumph.

The Freedom Party already has made huge gains in several provincial elections this year, at the expense of the Socialists and the centrist People’s Party, but it hasn’t won outright. Those establishment parties have governed on all levels in Austria with few exceptions since the end of World War II.

Runoff mayoral elections also were held Sunday in 44 communities in Upper Austria province. But “Red Vienna” was a special prize. The city has been governed by the Socialists since the end of World War II.