An earthquake in Austrian parliament after election

• On 15 October 2017, early parliamentary elections took place in Austria. The total voters’ turnout reached 80 percent, which is a bit more than the average from last years.
• The reason for the high turnout can be attributed to the migration situation, increasing streams of Euroscepticism and general high public interest in politics.

The reason for the high turnout can be attributed to the migration situation, increasing streams of Euroscepticism and general high public interest in politics​. (...) One of the hot topics of these elections was the Austrian immigration policy, regarding the reduction of social benefits for all refugees​.

It is the first time the Greens did not make it to the National Council since 1986, which might result in a change in leadership or in party’s policy – or both. It is very likely that many voters usually voting for the Greens favoured the Pilz’s new party, since Peter Pilzs used to be a prominent member of the Greens.

Future Kurz’s government will most likely emphasise the deepening of relations with the Visegrad Group countries, in this case with partners who refuse EU policy regarding quotas and compulsion on national acceptance of migrants. Future Czech-Austrian mutual diplomatic relations are to an extent uncertain.

The whole article is available here.