Conservatives win Austria election as far-right tumbles
Austrian conservatives won the most seats in snap elections Sunday, putting their 33-year-old leader Sebastian Kurz on track to retake power but forcing him into tough coalition negotiations after a corruption scandal sent his far-right former allies tumbling.
Kurz's People's Party (OeVP) won 37 percent, up almost six percentage points from the last election two years ago, but not enough to form a government on its own, according to projections based on partial results.
The Greens were also big winners as climate change rose to the top of voters' concerns, securing around 14 percent of the vote. That means they will be viable coalition partners for a new government, but Green leader Werner Kogler said on Sunday evening that the party would need to see "radical change" from the right-wing policies pursued by the previous coalition.
Kurz's former allies, the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), were the biggest losers of the night, falling 10 percentage points to around 16 percent following