The leaders of Austria’s two far-right parties have hailed the results of snap general elections, which saw their support doubling since the 2006 polls.

The Freedom Party and the Alliance for the Future of Austria took nearly 29% of the vote, preliminary results show.

The Social Democrats won the polls with 30%. But they, and the conservative People’s Party, with 26%, suffered their worst results since 1945.

The shape of a possible coalition will now be hard to predict, experts say.

A total of 183 parliamentary seats were up for grabs in Sunday’s election.

The early polls were called after the grand coalition between the Social Democrats and the People’s Party collapsed this summer amid internal fights and personal feuds.

‘Difficult situation’

“Today, we are the winners of election night,” Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache said.

Mr Strache also suggested that he was interested in becoming the next chancellor, according to the Associated Press news agency.

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