Initial results show that the Freedom Party is at the top in Austria’s parliamentary elections

VIENNA – Early results from Austria’s parliamentary election held on Sunday showed the far-right Freedom Party leading the national vote and securing its first-ever parliamentary election victory, according to media reports.

The Freedom Party is expected to receive 29.1 percent of the vote, well ahead of the ruling conservative People’s Party with 26.2 percent of the vote. This emerges from a forecast published by the Austrian broadcaster ORF and the APA news agency shortly after the polls closed at 5 p.m. local time.

This represents a significant gain for the Freedom Party compared to the 2019 parliamentary election, when the party received 16.2 percent of the vote. However, the People’s Party, which received 37.5 percent of the vote in the last election, suffered a serious setback.

According to the forecast, the Social Democratic Party is clearly in third place in Sunday’s election with 20.4 percent of the vote, slightly less than 21.2 percent in the 2019 election.