The Success of Sebastian Kurz in 2017 Austrian Parliamentary Elections
Abstract
The article deals with the peculiarities of the extraordinary elections in the Republic of Austria in
2017, as well as the main reasons for the success of the renewed Austrian People's Party (ANP) and its
leader, Sebastian Kurz, the former youngest foreign minister and chairman of the OSCE. The main
results of the elections to the lower house of parliament, the National Council are in details analyzed,
whrere the political parties have overcome the 4 percent barrier.
The main conclusions of well-known domestic and foreign political scientists and experts are in de-
tails characterized, who evaluated the reasons for supporting of right and far- right political parties in
the European countries, in particular in Austria, which have received considerable support in the
elections, which was caused by public dissatisfaction with the ineffective policy of the European
Union, which after the international financial crisis, terrorist threats, problems with migrants, refugees,
and in recent years a rather aggressive foreign policy of Russia, is forced to face new challenges, giv-
ing an adequate response, which plays an important role for Ukraine, because our country sees its fu-
ture in close multi-vector cooperation with the EU.
It is important for Ukraine support of the European Union and European countries, in particular
with Austria, because our country is interested in further fruitful development of bilateral relations
between Ukraine and Austria and cooperation in various sectors of the economy, as well as support for
European and Euro-Atlantic course. Ukraine is able to give an adequate response only in close cooper-
ation with European countries.
Ukraine is affected by domestic political changes both within the European Union and domestic
political changes within European countries, namely which political parties win and which political
coalitions are formed, as well as the influence of pro-Russian political forces in the party landscape.