Austria’s anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPÖ) is likely to formally challenge the presidential election that took place last month and ask for a recount of the postal ballots by Wednesday, its leader said Monday.  Speaking on radio station OE1, Heinz-Christian Strache said “experts were examining several irregularities that had come to light” involving the way postal ballots had been counted.

On 22 May, one of the most bitterly disputed elections in Austrian recent memory saw the two candidates for the office of Bundespräsident (President of the Republic) running neck and neck.  They couldn't have been more dissimilar – the first a former Communist turned Green, then Independent; the second a member of a populist party with suspected ideological ties to National Socialism.  The razor edge that separated them (31,000 votes) pointed to a deeply divided  electorate and, beyond, a fractured country.

Gone were the days where Austrians, and the Viennese, lined up the streets with festive banners to welcome the “refugees.”  It gradually dawned on people that those presented to them as desperate creatures fleeing their war-torn countries were often single men vigorous enough to tear down fences and fight with the police.  They should have been strong enough to stay and put up a fight.  Videos appeared on the net showing migrants angrily refusing food handed out to them if they deemed it not halal, or if it was simply not to their liking.  Others pulled stacks of banknotes from their pockets to show they did not want handouts, only passage to their preferred destination.  One group leader was seen exhibiting a roadmap to a journalist, showing the specific countries where each had to go.  In other words, they were on a mission, sent by an unnamed sponsor.

Such images had a sobering effect on people, but the tipping point was reached on New Year's Eve.  The people in Vienna had been issued warnings to avoid public and crowded places, and friends invited me to celebrate at home.

We watched on TV the sexual assaults that had taken place in Germany, but they really hit home when it emerged that Salzburg and Vienna had witnessed incidents of their own, initially concealed by the authorities.

Yet safety concerns were not the only reason for the change of mood.  Another was Vienna's deteriorating general appearance.  On its once elegant, aristocratic streets, a veiled and bearded crowd had made its entrance, initially in the more commercial district of Mariahilferstrasse but gradually trickling down to the exclusive First District, home to the imperial palace and most monuments and landmarks.  Groups of two or three couples walking together, with the women wrapped in all versions of the veil, from the “tarha” (headscarf) to the hijab and the burqa, were now a familiar sight.  So were single men walking in groups of up to six, sometimes making lewd jokes when crossing Europeans of the opposite sex.

Some of the newcomers behaved as if they owned the place.  Others were discreet, quietly sipping on drinks at outdoor cafes in the exclusive pedestrian zone – not quite what you’d expect from refugees.  On one occasion, I spotted a group of four or five mature women, clad in veils from top to toe, walking into “Forever 21.”  It was a surprising choice of store for women in their late fifties or sixties, let alone veiled and refugees.  They had perhaps overlooked the miniskirts and hot pants in the store windows but, after realizing their mistake, would surely walk out.  Not at all – on my way back after running errands, I saw them exiting the store, carrying shopping bags.

In another instance, I was returning from dinner with friends, and we saw a lone woman walking up the main pedestrian avenue with her black veils blown by the wind.  What was this “Merry Widow” doing there, un-chaperoned, at such an indecent hour?  My friend Renata commented: “They inflict the sight of their ugly veils on us, supposedly for religious reasons, but take liberties with all the rest. Why do we have to put up with that?”

This remark summed up locals’ frustration with those whom they increasingly perceived as invaders destroying their way of life.

However, it would be wrong to believe that negative sentiments came only from “xenophobic” native Austrians.  Aslan, a taxi driver, himself an immigrant of Asian origin, admitted to me he had voted for the FPÖ because “too much is too much, and too many potential criminals have already been let into the country.”

As for Ahmed, an Egyptian employee at my local grocery store, he did not volunteer details of his vote, but he showed he was none too pleased with the behavior of the newcomers.  He described his personal experience with a compatriot who had sought employment at the store.  The man kept hashing and rehashing that he had come here to “show Austrian kuffar [infidels] the true path to Allah,” and he would have none of Ahmed’s calls to reason.

One day, Ahmed saw him stuffing his bag with goods stolen from the store.  He confronted him, but the man replied: “So what?  They [the West] have robbed us long enough.  Time for a payback!”