By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press

LINZ, Austria (AP) - The beer's been flowing since early morning, the air is tinged with the smell of bratwurst and cigarette smoke, and the crowd is hyped. Hoots, whistling and frenetic clapping compete with chants of "H-C! H-C!" as the man of the moment bounds onto the stage.

The scene is something out of a pop concert. But the beer-tent hero is Heinz-Christian Strache, head of Austria's populist Freedom Party. And his message is putting a scare into the country's governing coalition ahead of EU Parliament elections.

Despite its Euroskeptic stance, the Freedom Party is only a few percentage points behind the Socialists and the conservative People's Party in the May 25 race for EU Parliament seats. That's in line with expectations of a generally strong showing of right-leaning populist parties in the EU parliamentary race.

But pollsters also say that if national elections were held now, the Freedom Party would actually win them, a stunning upset of the two establishment parties that have traditionally governed Austria.

The party's popularity clearly reflects unhappiness with the status quo. And that's hard to explain, when looking only at Austria's metrics.

Though inching up, unemployment remains among Europe's lowest at 4.9 percent. A tightly meshed social security net provides broad benefits. And even though taxes are high to fund such generous welfare, Austria is among the richest countries of the 28-nation European union, measured in take-home pay.

Ironically, that's part of the problem.

Many view their country as an island of prosperity threatened by hostile outsiders - Muslim refugees, cheap foreign labor, or Brussels-based "Eurocrats" looking to strip them from their national identity, while misappropriating their hard-earned money to bail out other EU countries. Domestically, many Austrians are suspicious of big banks, foreign business and establishment parties that they view as corrupt and unresponsive to the problems of the little man.

The Freedom Party knows how to exploit such fears, and Strache is in his element as he works his audience.

Follow this link:

Austria: Populist Freedom Party strong in EU vote - NBC40.net