AUSTRIANS RE-ELECT GOVERNMENT

Grey River Argus, 11 October 1949, Page 5

AUSTRIANS RE-ELECT GOVERNMENT

By Big Majority

VIENNA, October 9. The Austrian general election was held to-day. There are indications that an extremely heavy vote will be recorded. Early’ returns showed that the Right wing People’s Party, which is the Government Coalition, is leading far out in front, with tfhe Socialist Party apparently second and the Communists running a poor last. The Ministry of ,the Interior reports clashes between Communists and anti-Communists before the polls opened. Communists in Vienna engaged a group of Socialists in a free-for-all scrimmage and two Socialists were taken to hospital. Communists in a fight with members of the People’s Party severely injured a young student.

A Communist in Hitler’s birthplace, Braunan, injured a People’s Party official with a knife. (Rec 11.15) LONDON, Oct 10. Reuter’s Vienna correspondent says the Austrian Government Coalition —Right-wing People’s Party and the Socialist Party—have retained their comfortable majority in the Austrian practice of the Railways Department are:—

People’s Party 77 Socialists 16 League of Independents .... 10 Communists 5

The two main parties lost a few seats because of a campaign by the Neo-Nazi League of Independents which has won 16 seats in its first Parliamentary 'election.