"Austrians made history tonight," the FPO general secretary, Michael Schnedlitz, told public broadcaster ORF at his party's jubilant election night celebration. "You can clearly see that change has come."
Despite devastating flooding this month from Storm Boris bringing the climate crisis to the fore, the Greens, junior partners in the government coalition, tallied just 8.6%.
The OVP tried to put a brave face on the result, which will send shockwaves through Europe, its general secretary, Christian Stocker, said. "Governing means confronting tough realities and we've done that in the last years."
Profiting from a rightwing surge in many parts of Europe and taking Hungary's Viktor Orban as a model, the FPO capitalised on fears around migration and crime heightened by recent events.
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