Austria Far-right And Left Revel In Happy Regional Union

EISENSTADT, Austria, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Nov, 2016 ) - Campaigners for Austria's Greens-backed presidential candidate Alexander Van der Bellen are having a hard time in Burgenland state, where the far-right has carved out a cosy alliance with the Social Democrats, one of the country's two main parties.

The SPOe, which grew out of a Marxist worker's movement and remains close to the unions, broke a major taboo last year by entering into a coalition with the populist Freedom Party (FPOe). As a result, the FPOe's presidential poster boy Norbert Hofer is expected to easily beat his rival on December 4 in the eastern region, on Hungary's border.

The 45-year-old scored over 60 percent in Burgenland in the first run-off in May, which was annulled over procedural irregularities.

"Some local SPOe mayors are supporting Van der Bellen... but there are many who don't openly campaign for Hofer but will vote for him," Burgenland Greens MP Regina Petrik told AFP in a recent interview.

Burgenland's political marriage is "the first great tear in the red barricade put up in 1986" when Franz Vranitzky broke off the short-lived coalition with the FPOe after he was elected chancellor, according to Austrian news magazine Profil.

It is also a clear sign of both the seemingly unstoppable rise of the FPOe and the crisis plaguing the ruling establishment, made up of the SPOe and the conservative People's Party. Like elsewhere in Europe and the US, disgruntled voters punished the traditional parties by knocking their two presidential candidates out of the first round in April.