(ANSA) - TRIESTE - Austria's president warned conservative election victor Sebastian Kurz that European values must underpin the next government and he would scrutinize developments as Kurz considers bringing the far right back into power.

"I will ensure that the fundamental European values inscribed in our constitution remain the compass for Austria's future", President Alexander Van der Bellen said as he received the outgoing coalition government, which will stay on in a caretaker role until a successor is formed.

Van der Bellen, former leader of the leftist Greens, narrowly beat an FPO candidate in a presidential election run-off last year, campaigning on a pro-European platform. During his campaign he said that as president he would seek to prevent FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache from becoming chancellor if the FPO won an election, but since taking office he has said only that the next government must be pro-European. The FPO cheered Britain's 2016 vote to leave the EU and even sketched out a case in which Austria might hold its own "Oexit" referendum on leaving the bloc. But the anti-immigrant party has since backed away from that position.

Kurz's People's Party (OVP) won Sunday's parliamentary election with a hard line on immigration that left little daylight between it and the far-right Freedom Party. A coalition with the FPO is not certain but appears the most likely outcome after Kurz called an end to the OVP's previous coalition with the Social Democrats. Kurz has also said that any coalition partner must be pro-European. (ANSA).