The right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) looks set to win the European elections in the country with 27% of the vote, ahead of the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), according to an initial forecast.
The Freedom Party has gained around 10 percentage points compared to the 2019 EU election, according to a forecast published as the polling stations closed.
During the election campaign, the party often emphasized its scepticism towards the EU under the slogan "Stop the EU madness" and portrayed the EU as a warmongering force in the Ukraine conflict.
According to the pollsters' calculations, which are based on several thousand interviews before the vote and on election day, the SPÖ and ÖVP each have around 23%.
For the governing ÖVP, this means a drop of more than 10 percentage points. The SPÖ is roughly at the same level as five years ago.
The result for the Greens was also eagerly awaited. Their lead candidate is 23-year-old climate activist Lena Schilling. The Greens lost around four points and now have around 10%, the forecast showed.
The liberal Neos party is likely to make some gains and, according to the pollsters, will also reach around 10%.
Austria has 20 of the future 720 seats in the European Parliament.
Sunday's ballot was also seen as a test for elections to the lower house of parliament, the National Council, in the autumn. Here, too, polls have so far seen the FPÖ as the clear favourite.
The forecast was published by the news agency APA, the public broadcaster ORF and the private broadcaster Puls24. It is based on election day surveys by the institutes Foresight, Arge Wahlen and Peter Hajek.