Far right surge as Austrian campaign winds up

Campaigning for tomorrow's early parliamentary election in Austria wound up yesterday with the race between the two mainstream parties too close to call and the far right set for a major rebound.

Whoever comes in first, both Social Democrats and conservatives are expected to lose support, scoring about 30 per cent each, following the collapse of their coalition in July after 18 months of feuding.

Combined backing for the two main parties is now at its lowest since World War II, according to opinion polls.

But the Social Democrats' slim lead, gained with new leader Werner Faymann's campaign that highlighted an anti-inflation package, was within the margin of error, pollsters said.

A resurgence of two rightist parties to a combined 25 per cent after their split three years ago looked certain.

The success of Heinz-Christian Strache's far right Freedom Party and Joerg Haider's right-wing splinter group Alliance for Austria's Future might bring them back into government, but only when all other options were exhausted, analysts said.

Mr Faymann has ruled out a coalition with Freedom. Conservative leader Wilhelm Molterer also ruled out a deal with Freedom if they held on to their anti-EU stance, but left a door open if they toned it down.

"I believe this rebuff to Strache will hold, at least immediately after the election," said Anton Pelinka, a professor at Budapest's Central European University and expert on Austrian affairs. "After a little while, if no other coalition emerges or if it fails again - that's another story."

Freedom's first stint in government so shocked the EU in 2000 that it briefly shunned Austria.

Campaign leaders crossed swords for the last time this week in a turbulent 19-hour Parliament session that approved a pension rise, boosted family subsidies and scrapped university tuition fees. It rejected joint proposals by Social Democrats and the hard-right Freedom Party to cut the sales tax on foodstuffs.