People’s Party leader declares victory in Austria election

World Today

The leader of Austria’s right-leaning People’s Party has declared victory in a national election that puts him on track to become Europe’s youngest head of government.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz claimed the win on Sunday night after projections gave his party a comfortable lead with more than 90 percent of the ballots counted.

The projections had the People’s Party getting 31.4 percent of the vote, a gain of more than 7 percentage points from the 2013 election.

Final results will not be available until mid-week after absentee ballots and ballots cast by voters away from their home districts are counted.

The projections showed the centre-left Social Democrats receiving 26.6 percent and the vote and the anti-migrant, eurosceptic Freedom Party 26.5 percent.

The country now is governed by a Social Democratic-People’s Party coalition.

Story by the Associated Press.


It’s election victory makes the People’s Party the strongest party in Austria’s Parliament.
CGTN’s Wang Guan discusses what this means for the direction of country’s government with Kelsey Suter. She’s a Senior Consultant at APCO Worldwide.