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World|politics|May 10, 2016 / 10:20 AM
Austrian chancellor Faymann quits after party revolt

AKIPRESS.COM - Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann resigned on Monday, bowing to a revolt from inside his Social Democratic Party after it suffered a humiliating electoral defeat to a far right buoyed by Europe's migration crisis, Reuters said.

Faymann's surprise announcement marks the fall of a political survivor adept at compromises and about-faces that angered his party's base in his more than seven years in power.

While the Social Democrats' popularity has been waning for years, the rising tide of populism that has carried anti-immigrant parties in countries like Germany and Sweden during the migration crisis hastened his departure.

"Do I have full cover ..., strong support within the party? I must say the answer is no," Faymann, 56, said in a statement. "I draw the consequences from this low level of support and step down from my positions as party leader and federal chancellor."

Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner, who heads the conservative People's Party that rules in coalition with the Social Democrats, said he saw no need for a snap election after the announcement, APA news agency reported.

"For us it was a big surprise as we believed the personnel debate at the Social Democrats had been done," conservative Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling told reporters in Brussels. Markets, however, shrugged off the news.

As the anti-immigration Freedom Party is leading in opinion polls on more than 30 percent, the Social Democrats have little interest in a general election being held before the next one due in 2018, as they would most likely lose the chancellorship.

With President Heinz Fischer, a former Social Democrat, in office until early July, a Social Democrat is likely to take over from Mitterlehner, who will meanwhile run the government on an interim basis.

The Social Democratic Party (SPO) leadership set about finding a successor for Faymann at a meeting on Monday, and asked the veteran mayor of Vienna, Michael Haeupl, to take over as party leader for the time being.

"I am not chancellor and have no intention of becoming it," Haeupl told a news conference after the meeting.

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