Austria: far-right anti-Muslim parties would win 42% of the vote in general election, opinion poll finds

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party or FPÖ would win the most votes if there were a general election this weekend, according to the results of a new opinion poll released on Friday.

The FPÖ would win 29 percent of the votes if there were a general election on Sunday, overtaking for the first time the Social Democrats with 28 pecent and the conservative People’s Party or ÖVP with 23 percent, according to a poll by the OGM institute on behalf of the daily Kurier.

The environmentalist Green party and another far-right party, the BZÖ, would each win 13 percent of the votes.

The current coalition government under Social Democrat Chancellor Werner Faymann, which took power in December 2008, is made up of the Social Democrats and ÖVP parties in a power-sharing deal.

AFP, 20 May 2011