| Author (Person) | Karnitschnig, Matthew |
|---|---|
| Series Title | Politico |
| Series Details | 15-16.10.17 |
| Publication Date | 15/10/2017 |
| Content Type | News |
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Background Austria foreign minister and fellow ÖVP member Sebastian Kurz said on the 12 May 2017 that 'I believe early elections are the right way forward'. It was expected that Reinhold Mitterlehner would also resign as leader of the ÖVP and be replaced by Sebastian Kurz. Sebastian Kurz was elected to be the acting leader of the Austrian Peoples Party on the 14 May 2017 and said that an autumn 2017 election was likely. Christian Kern was the incumbent Chancellor of Austria and chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). He admitted on the 14 May 2017 that the governing coalition with the ÖVP had shattered and that an election was inevitable. On the 16 May 2017 party chiefs of the major parties agreed on the 15 October 2017 as the date for the general election in Austria. Sebastian Kurz was formally elected leader of the Austrian People’s Party on the 1 July 2017 at a party convention in Linz. He announced that in the forthcoming general election he would campaign under the banner of a new name, the Sebastian Kurz list. The election campaign during the summer and autumn of 2017, saw the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) move into a polling lead under the leadership of Sebastian Kurz. Commentators suggested that the most likely outcome to emerge from the election would be a coalition between the ÖVP and the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). For full information on the Austrian 2017 general election click here.Reports and analysis of the results in the general election held in Austria on the 15 October 2017. Provisional final results on the evening of the 15 October 2017 gave Sebastian Kurz's Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) a clear win, with 31.6% of the vote. The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) with 26% were close to the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) with 26.9%. The Greens received only 3.3% of the vote and would be eliminated from the parliament. It was suggested that the final vote to be announced on the 19 October 2017, once postal votes were incorporated, was expected to marginally help the SPÖ. Commentators discussed the impact of the result on Austrian policies within the country, and externally on the European Union. Manès Weisskircher and Matthew E. Bergman in an LSE EuroppBlog wrote that four key lessons from the result were: + A shift to the right – not only in the shadow of the 'refugee crisis' Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen formally asked Sebastian Kurz to form a new coalition government o the 20 October 2017. |
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| Source Link | http://www.politico.eu/article/austria-heads-for-right-leaning-coalition-early-projections/ |
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| Countries / Regions | Austria |
