Austrian Serbs Spurn Right-Wing Appeal, Analysis shows

A new analysis of election results and population data shows that Serbs in Vienna have spurned appeals by Austrian right-wing parties - and mainly support the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Austria, SPÖ, far more than the general population.

The analysis by the OGM, or Austrian Society for Marketing Corporation, shows that about 46 per cent of Viennese Serbs tend to vote for the Social Democrats.

Only around 16 per cent of Austrian Serbs have voted for the centre-right Austrian People's Party, ÖVP, led by Sebastian Kurz - as opposed to 20 per cent in the general population of the capital.

This is followed - a long way behind - by the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria, FPÖ, which is backed by 9 per cent of Serbs.

The independent list of Heinz-Christian Strache, the former head of the Freedom Party, which has pitched strongly for the votes of Serbian voters in Austria, did even worse than the FPÖ. It is only supported by about 5 per cent of Serbs in the country.

Both the FPÖ and Strache have tried hard to win the Serbian vote by strongly opposing recognition of the independence of the former Serbian province of Kosovo - a key issue for Serbian nationalists - and by tapping into anti-Muslim sentiment, strong among many Orthodox Christian Serbs with long memories of centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule.

However, the statistical analysis done by the OGM Institute suggest these overt pitches have had little effect.

The FPÖ and its former head, Strache, are also known for cultivating close ties to the Bosnian Serb firebrand Milorad Dodik, now the Serbian representative on Bosnia's tripartite presidency and the most powerful Serbian politician in the country.

Dodik has long nurtured ties with both the FPO and...