Far right surges in Austrian vote

The far right surged to almost a third of the vote in Austria's parliamentary election yesterday, complicating prospects for the biggest mainstream party, the Social Democrats, to forge a stable coalition government.

The right's record showing heralded political instability in the affluent Alpine republic since the two main centrist parties will be hard put to re-establish a broad coalition even if they resolve the feuds that killed off their last alliance.

"Terrible," political analyst Anton Pelinka said of prospects for stable government in the near future.

"The strength of the far-right parties will make formation of a coalition incredibly difficult if you don't bring either into government," he said. Social Democrats have ruled out an alliance with the right over its anti-foreigner stances.

Preliminary official results showed the centre-left Social Democrats at 30 per cent and the conservative People's Party at 26 per cent, down from 35 and 34 per cent respectively in 2006.

It was the worst showing for both since World War II.

But by retaining their status as the largest single party, the Social Democrats under Werner Faymann are expected to be asked by Austria's President to form the next government.

Heinz-Christian Strache's far right Freedom Party scored 18 per cent, compared with 11 per cent two years ago, while Joerg Haider's right-wing populist Alliance for Austria's Future was on 11 per cent, almost tripling its vote haul in 2006.