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Austria’s Kurz Rises to 38% in Poll After Government Collapse

Austria's Kurz Rises to 38% in Poll After Government Collapse

(Bloomberg) -- A first poll after the collapse of Austria’s government saw Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s party gaining support, though falling short of the level needed to govern alone.

His People’s Party is at 38%, up four percentage points from a previous survey, according to the poll conducted for Oesterreich newspaper by Research Affairs Institut from May 18-20. The opposition Social Democrats inched up to 26%, while the Freedom Party -- whose leader had to resign after a video showed him promising government contracts for campaign funds -- fell 5 percentage points to 18%.

Austria’s Kurz Rises to 38% in Poll After Government Collapse

Kurz, who dumped his far-right partner and began campaigning for early elections because of the video, has said he’d like to win enough support in the snap ballot in the fall to govern without a partner. That’s a stint last achieved in the early 1980s when there were just three parties in parliament.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zoe Schneeweiss in London at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Tirone

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