President Alexander Van der Bellen vowed to respect tenets of democracy in Austria as election results in the country showed the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), led by Herbert Kickl, winning with 29.1 of the votes.
In a brief statement, Bellen said that the formation of a new government would come shortly.
He called for forming a coalition government from the winning parties due to none achieving a majority of votes.
On his part, Chancellor Karl Nehammer — head of the Austrian Conservative People’s Party (OVP), which came second in the elections with 26.4 percent of the votes — expressed his disinterest in forming a coalition with the FP.
Meanwhile, Kickl said to the media that he and his party were delighted to win the election, saying that the win was historic.
Source: Kuwait News Agency
