European far-right leaders lined up yesterday to congratulate the Austrian Freedom Party on its general election performance as fears grew that the result could deepen EU divisions on migration and reform.

The eurosceptic Freedom Party (FPO), which campaigned on stopping the “Islamisation of Europe”, denying migrants welfare and holding a referendum on withdrawing Austria from future EU bailouts, was declared the third strongest party, surging 5.7 points to 26.5 per cent. It is now the most likely partner for the conservative People’s Party, which took 31.7 per cent to replace the Social Democrats as the biggest party in parliament.

Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the FPO, took a swipe at Sebastian Kurz, the People’s Party leader who adopted much of the FPO’s rhetoric. Mr Strache said