 Following the end the Second World War and re-establishment of Austria as a sovereign state, the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) dominated politics and public life for decades, with only one additional party—the FPÖ—playing a significant role at the national level.More recently, the pattern of two-party dominance withered with the rise of newer parties, such as the Greens and the NEOS.The ethnically and culturally heterogeneous nation-state of Austria is one of the many remnant states of Austria-Hungary, a vast multinational empire that ceased to exist in 1918.