Austria’s national elections saw a rise in Eurosceptic parties together getting 30% of the votes while the grand coalition just got 50.9%;

Austria’s Eurosceptic parties on the rise

Austria’s national elections on Sunday resulted in a rise of right-wing populists and Euro-sceptics, representing together more than 30% of the votes. The populist FPÖ, which seeks to end taxpayer-funded bailouts of weaker euro zone countries, boosted its share of the vote by almost four points to 21.4%. (its break-away fraction BZÖ lost more than 7 points and failed to get into parliament with 3.6%). Frank Stronach's new party, also Eurosceptic but without the FPÖ's anti-foreigner tone made its entry into parliament with 5.8%.

The governing grand coalition parties of Social Democrats (SPÖ) and conservative People's Party (ÖVP) emerged battered from their worst electoral showings since World War Two, each loosing 2.2pp, and together winning just 50.9% of the vote, according to Der Standard.

The new liberal party Neos, founded in 2012, achieved 4.8% and made it thus into parliament, while the Greens advanced to 11.5%.

Though commentators expect the grand coalition to continue, Conservative leader Michael Spindelegger was keeping his options open, refusing to rule out a coalition with the right-wing FPÖ and Team Stronach- a combination that would be numerically feasible, Reuters reports. "This result is a wake-up call," he told ORF. "We can't simply go on as before."

In one of their regions, the Styria, where the grand coalition agreed on the reform agenda, even lost out against the FPÖ, which became with 25% the strongest party.

The Kurier comments that in their election campaign the coalition parties failed to have a clear commitment in the more sensitive questions such as the next budget, banking reforms and eurozone bailouts, leaving the field to the populist parties. A string of corruption scandals has also contributed to disenchantment with mainstream Austrian politicians, writes Reuters.