VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's far-right Freedom Party lost heavily in Vienna local elections Sunday, its third consecutive setback since it joined a national coalition 13 months ago.
The Social Democrats and Greens hailed the result as a slap in the face for conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's coalition with Joerg Haider's anti-immigrant grouping, but the ruling parties said their alliance would not be affected.
With more than 90 percent of the vote counted, the Freedom Party had won 20.3 percent, down about eight percent from the 1996 Vienna election. This represented a loss of more than a quarter of their votes in the Austrian capital.
The big victor was Vienna's Social Democratic Mayor Michael Haeupl, whose party soared to 47 percent from 39.2 percent five years ago. This would give him an absolute majority of 52 seats in the 100-seat city council, according to the partial returns.
Haeupl said Haider, who campaigned actively in Vienna with aggressive anti-foreigner slogans and unprecedented attacks on Austria's Jewish leader, would find it "difficult to escape responsibility for the outcome."
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=world&Repository=WORLD_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FWorld%2FINTERNATIONAL-AUSTRIA-ELECTION-DC_TXT.XML
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The Social Democrats and Greens hailed the result as a slap in the face for conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's coalition with Joerg Haider's anti-immigrant grouping, but the ruling parties said their alliance would not be affected.
With more than 90 percent of the vote counted, the Freedom Party had won 20.3 percent, down about eight percent from the 1996 Vienna election. This represented a loss of more than a quarter of their votes in the Austrian capital.
The big victor was Vienna's Social Democratic Mayor Michael Haeupl, whose party soared to 47 percent from 39.2 percent five years ago. This would give him an absolute majority of 52 seats in the 100-seat city council, according to the partial returns.
Haeupl said Haider, who campaigned actively in Vienna with aggressive anti-foreigner slogans and unprecedented attacks on Austria's Jewish leader, would find it "difficult to escape responsibility for the outcome."
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=world&Repository=WORLD_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FWorld%2FINTERNATIONAL-AUSTRIA-ELECTION-DC_TXT.XML
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"Falling even more in love with you...letting go of all I've held on to...I'm standing here until you make me move...I'm hanging by a moment here with you" - Lifehouse
PsychoticIckyThing
AlienSoup Mod
PsychoticIckyThing.Com