Sebastian Kurz's party wins Austria parliamentary election

PanARMENIAN.Net - Former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's People's Party (ÖVP) won a clear victory in Austria's snap parliamentary election, Deutsche Welle reports.

Kurz's party scored 37.1 percent in Sunday, September 29's vote — an increase of 5.7 percentage points compared with the 2017 poll.

The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) suffered a worse-than-expected loss, down almost 10 percentage points to around 16%, a sign that the party's reputation may have suffered after a corruption scandal earlier this year.

The center-left Social Democrats (SPÖ) plunged five percentage points to around 22%, the party's worst results since World War II.

The Greens gained 10.2 points to reach 14%, raising the prospect of a coalition between the ÖVP and the Greens.

Some 6.4 million Austrians were eligible to vote in Sunday's parliamentary election.

Since World War II, Austria has been governed by either the ÖVP or the SPÖ. For 44 years in total, the two ruled together, but it was Kurz who ended their last partnership, leading to the 2017 polls.