Austria stunned by far-right's election gains

Muslim graves desecrated
Authorities in western Austria said Monday that 90 graves at a Muslim cemetery were defaced over the weekend, and that right-wing extremists were suspected. It was unclear whether the vandalism was politically motivated.

The Social Democrats looked likely to lose 10 of their seats to have 58 in the new parliament, while the People's Party would drop from having 66 to 50 seats. If they manage to resurrect their coalition, they could still govern without either of the two far-right parties as a partner.

The Greens also lost ground, winning 19 seats compared with 21 previously after winning 9.79 percent of Sunday's vote, according to preliminary results.

The results did not yet include absentee ballots or those turned in at polling stations outside the voter's home district. A final tally is not expected before Oct. 6.

Some 4.5 million voters turned out Sunday, out of 6.3 million eligible to vote. However, about 96,300 ballots were thrown out as invalid, the interior minister said.

The voters included 16- and 17-year-olds, after a new law lowered the minimum voting age.

‘Very dramatic’
But it was too early to tell if those votes made a difference in the results, said Christoph Hofinger of the SORA Institute for Social Research and Analysis. Hofinger and other experts had downplayed their possible impact in the run-up to the elections.

The SORA Institute said tens of thousands of traditional Social Democrat and People's Party supporters stayed home on Sunday. The Social Democrats lost 171,000 more votes to the Freedom Party and another 75,000 to the Alliance for the Future of Austria, while the People's Party lost 149,000 supporters to the Alliance and 86,000 to the Freedom Party.

Molterer described the People's Party's steep loss as "very painful" and "very dramatic."

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