President Thomas Klestil started talks with party leaders yesterday in an effort to form a new Austrian government after the success in Sunday's election of Mr Jorg Haider's far-right Freedom Party. Mr Klestil indicated that substantive negotiations about building a new coalition would not begin for at least a month.
Israel's President Weizmann called on Jews to leave Austria immediately and move to Israel and the former prime minister, Mr Shimon Peres, said he had "great fears" for Austria's future.
"This is terrible, it's frightening. The world has not learned from its history," said Israel's Justice Minister, Mr Yossi Beilin.
Chancellor Viktor Klima's Social Democrats remain Austria's largest party with 33.4 per cent of the vote but the result was the party's worst since the end of the second World War. The conservative People's Party polled 26.9 per cent - the worst result in its history.
The Freedom Party surged ahead by more than 5 per cent to overtake the People's Party and become Austria's second largest party with 27.2 per cent. Only 14,000 votes separate the far-right party from the conservatives and 200,000 postal votes, which will not be counted until next Tuesday, could prove crucial.
Dr Ernst Neuwirth, one of Austria's leading statisticians, suggested the postal votes could put the People's Party back in second place. "If previous trends in postal votes hold, it will benefit the People's Party."
The conservative leadership repeated its pledge to go into opposition if it fell into third place behind Mr Haider's party. This could open the way for a minority government of Social Democrats and Greens, who command almost 41 per cent of the vote between them.
The Social Democrats have ruled out forming a coalition with Mr Haider, who campaigned on an openly xenophobic manifesto which called for a complete halt to non-EU immigration into Austria.
The Bavarian prime minister, Mr Edmund Stoiber, yesterday urged the People's Party to form an alliance with the far-right party, rather than continue its 13year-old coalition with the Social Democrats.
"It is not good for a democracy for a grand coalition to be around for so long. Given their narrow defeat, the People's Party now has the chance to work together with the Freedom Party," he said.
Some conservatives are tempted to strike a deal which would allow Mr Haider to become chancellor for two years, with a member of the People's Party as chancellor for another two years.
German Social Democrats urged Austria's mainstream parties to shun Mr Haider's advances, reminding them that Hitler came to power in 1933 at the head of a coalition government.
Mr Klima's allies remain optimistic that they can persuade the People's Party to continue the present coalition. If the chancellor fails to secure a majority, however, the president will ask Mr Haider, as leader of the second largest party, to attempt to form a government.
