Austria lurches to the right

Austria's Freedom party (FPOe) leader Heinz Christian Strache (L) and leader of Austria's Buendnis Zukunft Oesterreich (BZOe) (Alliance for Austria's future) Joerg Haider gesture after a TV discussion in Vienna September 28, 2008. The far right surged to almost a third of the vote in Austria's parliamentary election on Sunday, complicating prospects for the biggest mainstream party, the Social Democrats, to forge a stable governing coalition. The far right's showing heralded political instability in the affluent Alpine republic since the two main centrist parties will be hard put to re-establish a broad coalition even if they resolved the feuds that killed off their last one.

Leader of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPOe) Heinz-Christian Strache (R) and his fiancee Andrea (L) celebrate on September 28, 2008 in Vienna, after the general election in Austria. The Freedom Party finished in third place in Austrian elections on Sunday, captured 18.2 percent of votes. The Social Democrats and conservatives finished first and second but scored their lowest results in history in these general elections.


A woman stands in front of an election banner of the Freedom Party (FPOe), which reads "Now it is about us Austrians", in Vienna in this September 18, 2008 file photo. Austria is one of the European Union's most prosperous nations, but with its economy slowing and prices rising, the election campaigns are not just focused on Vienna's cafes and concert halls. Its public housing projects, home to one third of voters, are the battleground for governing Social Democrats and opposition far-right parties in a campaign dwelling on economic worries, resurgent inflation and - for some - immigration.

'Daham statt Islam' translates roughly to "Austria instead of Islam".

Leader of Austria's far right Freedom Party Heinz-Christian Strache delivers a speech during a demonstration against the European Union Lisbon treaty in front of the chancellery in Vienna April 4, 2008.

(L-R) Markus Beisicht (Germany), Heinz-Christian Strache (Austria), Filip Dewinter (Belgium), and Robert Spieler (France) of several European right wing parties pose with signs, after the presentation of their organisation of 'Cities against Islamisation' in Antwerp, 17 January 2008.

(L-R) Filip Dewinter of Belgian right wing party Vlaams Belang, and Heinz-Christian Strache, of Austrian FPO,Anke Van Dermeersch of Vlaams Belang, and Robert Spieler of French right-wing party Alsace d'Abord attend the press conference to present the organisation of 'Cities against Islamisation' in Antwerp, 17 January 2008.



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Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang party (C) and other demonstrators holding a banner 'Stop Islamisation' during a march against the construction of a mosque in Desselgem (Belgium), on March 7, 2008.