Slovenian minority disappointed but not surprised by Austria election outcome

While Valentin Inzko, president of the National Council of Carinthian Slovenians (NSKS), said the result was not a surprise but a disappointment nevertheless, the co-presidents of the Association of Slovenian Organisations (ZSO) Manuel Jug and Bernard Sadovnik, believe the result reflects voters' frustrations over the past few years.

According to partial results, the FPÖ won 29.2% of he vote, the party's first ever federal parliamentary victory. The ruling People's Party (ÖVP) saw a record drop of 11 points for 26.5%. The Greens, the ÖVP's current government partner, got 8%, down nearly 6 points.

In Carinthia, the province that is home to the majority of the Slovenian community, the FPÖ got the highest support of any province: 38.7%. The nationalist party won in nearly all municipalities bar those with the Slovenian community.

Jug said this came as no surprise, as Carinthia is the only Austrian province to have ever elected a governor from the ranks of the FPÖ in Jörg Haider in the 2000s.

Inzko, as well as Sadovnik and Jug believe the most likely scenario in government-building to be Austria's first ever government consisting of more than two parties. It would likely consist of the ÖVP, the Social Democrats and one small party, likely the Greens or Neos.

While Inzko is certain that the FPÖ will not find a party to form a government with, Sadovnik is more cautious.

Both umbrella organisations hope for a government supportive of the ethnic minority and one that would take a proactive approach to preserving the Slovenian language, culture and organisations.

Jug and Inzko highlighted bilingual education and courts as fields where a lot remains to be done still. "All of these issues and promises are known. They just need to be implemented at pace, including those from the Austrian State Treaty," said Inzko.

Sadovnik underlined that the new Austrian government should do more to protect the minorities in the country, or else their languages will disappear in the next decade.

All three umbrella organisation heads expressed satisfaction that minority member Olga Voglauer, a member of the Greens, was re-elected MP. They believe she will continue fighting for the Slovenian community in Carinthia.

Voglauer meanwhile expressed disappointment with the election result. Nevertheless, she believes the Greens might be part of Austria's next government. Talking to Austrian public broadcaster ORF, she put the poor result of the Greens and the ruling ÖVP down to many crises of the past few years.

Commenting on the Greens' result, the MP told ORF that the election had shown that climate was not always in the focus of the public. She also said that cooperation with the ÖVP for the benefit of the Slovenian majority had been hard and that she would have wished for more progress.

Voglauer believes the Greens will have to make climate change an everyday topic and become equality advocates for ethnic communities.