Far right breakthrough in Vienna

"Social Democrats lose absolute majority, Strache triumphs,” Die Presse’s front page recapsthe results of themunicipal elections in Vienna, where incumbent mayor Michael Häupl’s Social Democrats (SPÖ), in power since 1994, have won 44.1% of the vote, whilst the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) have made a huge breakthrough, garnering nearly 27% of the vote. FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache "has finally got out from the shadow of Jörg Haider”, the party leader who died in 2008, writes the Viennese daily, "perhaps not in terms of the latter’s political resourcefulness, rhetorical acumen and charisma, but at least in terms of success at the polls in Vienna”. No-one could have foreseen the FPÖ’s quantum leap forwards, continues Die Presse, adding that Häupl has ruled out letting the xenophobic party participate in governing the nation’s capital. "And yet,” opines the paper, "the red-and-blue [SPÖ-FPÖ] hypothesis is not all that far-fetched, seeing as their electorates evidently overlap to some extent.”

Bucharest daily Adevarul, for its part, lauds Häupl‘s campaign promise to let migrants from Eastern Europe settle in Vienna without a working permit – "a godsend for the 11,000 Romanians” living in the Austrian capital.