Austria's election winner will be tough on migrants

Austria's parliamentary elections this Sunday are likely to result in a close run between the conservative governing People's Party and the far-right opposition Freedom Party. 

Besides the economic slowdown and Austria's recent devastating floods, migration is the main campaign topic for both parties.

Gang violence and stabbings have dominated the country's tabloid headlines in recent months - with the most prominent incidents taking place in Vienna's migrant neighborhood Favoriten. 

"I went to the station there and three or four boys came to me with a knife and they asked me for money," Favoriten resident Adin told CGTN near Reumannplatz. "That was the reason why I moved away from here. Because of more and more crimes happening," another man adds. 

For the first time since 1945, a far-right party is leading the polls ahead of Austrian elections. The Freedom Party has been campaigning against immigration since the 1990s.

The currently governing - conservative - People's Party which is just two percentage points behind the Freedom Party in polls is also campaigning against illegal migration calling for less welfare and more deportations.

Meanwhile, the number of refugees has been declining, with 50 per cent less asylum applications so far this year compared to the same period in 2023. 

It is not just migration Austrians are worried about. The country's future members of parliament working here on Vienna's Ringstrasse will also need to turn around a situation which sees Austria slipping down the world's competitiveness rankings and is finding itself in its longest recession since the Second World War.

"We are in a recession since the end of '22, especially in the manufacturing and construction sectors," says Josef Baumgartner from the Austrian Institute of Economic Research. 

"This is also a consequence of the downturn in Germany, So Austria is strongly connected to the German economy. And right-wing populist parties are gaining from this recession-related discomfort."

Last but not least, climate-related events have played a big role in campaigning. Last week, catastrophic floods killed five Austrians and damaged thousands of homes, streets and railway tracks.

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