AUSTRIANS went to the polls yesterday in a snap election that seemed likely to produce a victory for the right.

Polls predicted the right-wing People’s Party (OVP) would come first, but its 31-year-old leader Sebastian Kurz would have to do a deal with either the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) or the much-reduced Social Democrats (SPO) to become chancellor.

As foreign minister in the OVP-SPO coalition, now crumbling after 11 years, Mr Kurz shut off routes to refugees fleeing to Europe from the Middle East and pushed for the country’s “burka ban.”