ABSTRACT
The winners represent a broad spectrum. The left-of-center Green Party had the best result in its history: 11.1 instead of 9.5 percent. The social democratic party (SPO) received 35.3 percent of the votes, a slight decline from 36.5, but because the SPO regained the number one position ahead of the people’s party (OVP), the SPO's jubilation is understandable. The grand coalition's strategic dilemma of the 1990s was reflected by the freedom party rise and the major parties' decline. In the end, the OVP left the grand coalition to side with Jorg Haider. The dilemma is that the extreme right has to be included into a coalition government, or a grand coalition has to be formed just to keep the extreme right out. But the existence of a social segment afraid of the future in a more and more globalized economy is not a special Austrian phenomenon. There are some Austrian preconditions permitting the success of right-wing populism.
