Austria chancellor resigns after far-right election triumph

Austrian chancellor and ruling Social-Democratic party leader Werner Faymann has announced his resignation from both posts following the triumph by the far-right last month in the first round of presidential elections.

"I am giving up my role as party chief and federal chancellor," Faymann said on Monday in an afternoon appearance broadcast live on the Austrian Federal Chancellery website.

Faymann was chancellor since 2008.

The decision comes less than two weeks after his party's candidate came second-last in the first round of elections for the Austrian presidency.

Candidates from the two ruling parties failed to even make it to the run-off, which will be held on May 22. Candidates from the Social Democrats and Austrian People’s Party, which together form the ruling coalition government, each received about 11 percent of the votes.

A candidate from Austria’s far-right won most of the votes in the country’s presidential election on April 24. Norbert Hofer of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPÖ) secured 35 percent of the votes, but not enough to win the largely ceremonial post outright.

The victory has been seen as a big shake-up in Austrian politics as the country has had a president from the Social Democrats or the People’s Party since the end of the Second World War.

SS