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| - Austria's far-right, shaken by a series of corruption scandals, lost power in a key state Sunday, giving the Social Democrats the absolute majority in local elections there. In Burgenland state, the Social Democrats (SPOe) gained 49.94 percent of the vote, up more than 8 percentage points from the last state elections in 2015, according to preliminary final results. The results mean the SPOe -- which hit a historic low during national polls in September -- can govern the state alone as it has grabbed 19 out of 36 mandates. The far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) -- whose current leader Norbert Hofer is from Burgenland -- fell to 9.79 percent, down more than 5 percentage points from 2015. Burgenland state, bordering Hungary, had been governed since 2015 by a coalition of the SPOe and the FPOe. But the FPOe has been engulfed in corruption scandals, which last May brought down its national coalition. National elections in September returned conservative chancellor Sebastian Kurz, but now leading a coalition with the Greens, after the fall of his former far-right allies. Hofer credited incumbent SPOe state chief Hans Peter Doskozil for the party's success, adding the results were "no reason (for the FPOe) to sink into self pity". The FPOe governed Austria as the junior partner of Kurz's People's Party (OeVP) from late 2017 until May 2019. Then hidden video footage showed its then-leader and vice-chancellor, Heinz Christian Strache, appearing to offer public contracts in exchange for campaign support to a fake Russian backer. Strache, who resigned from all posts in May, is also under investigation over alleged expense abuses. In December, he was kicked out of the party, which he led for 14 years. The OeVP, which made gains in national polls in September, also marked a slight increase in Burgenland, getting 30.58 percent of the vote. jza/jj
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