Austrian Far-Right Candidate Norbert Hofer Narrowly Loses Presidential Vote - nytimes

VIENNA — Alexander Van der Bellen, a 72-year-old economics professor and former Green Party leader, won Austria’s cliffhanger presidential election on Monday, defeating his far-right rival by the slimmest of margins.

Mr. Van der Bellen’s victory was announced by the interior minister, Wolfgang Sobotka. Mr. Van der Bellen won 50.3 percent of the vote, and Mr. Hofer 49.7 percent, a difference of about 30,000 votes.

The far-right candidate, Norbert Hofer, conceded defeat on his Facebook page, writing: “Of course I am sad today. I would so gladly have taken care for our wonderful country for you as president.” He added: “The effort for this campaign is not lost, but an investment in the future.”

The result averted the prospect of the first right-wing populist head of state in post-Nazi Europe taking office in a democratic election. But the close result illustrated how deeply divided Austria is between left and right, and how thoroughly the centrist elites who have run the country since 1945 have fallen from public grace.

Polling experts said Mr. Van der Bellen won the election on support from city dwellers — particularly in Vienna, which voted 61 percent for him — women and the highly educated. He promised Sunday night that he would try to heal the rifts that had opened up along these and other lines as establishment politics stagnated. 

Mr. Hofer’s showing is the first time the Freedom Party, which has its roots in the 1950s, when it was founded by former Nazis and Teutonic nationalists, had gained close to 50 percent of the popular vote. That alone signals that it is a factor to be reckoned with as Austria, a generally prosperous country of 8.4 million, grapples to find its place in a globalized world, and in a Europe whose unity is under question.

The parties of the center-left and center-right that governed for most of the past 30 years in ever-duller grand coalitions were trounced in the first round of the presidential elections last month, when Mr. Hofer stunned rivals by reaping 35.1 percent, well ahead of Mr. Van der Bellen with 21 percent.

Sunday’s runoff turned into a cliffhanger as the popular vote was counted and showed an ever-narrowing lead for Mr. Hofer. The Austrian public service broadcaster ORF projected that Mr. Van der Bellen would win by just 3,000 votes when the record number of requested mail-in ballots was counted on Monday.

In France, the center-right daily Le Figaro wrote on Monday that “Europe’s leaders should not be too pleased if Alexander Van der Bellen spares them the shock of an anti-European president in Vienna.”

The very narrow vote contains a lesson, the French daily added. “Across the whole Continent, people are expressing more or less the same rejection of a Europe that lacks both a plan, and a head.”- Read More

Austrian Far-Right Candidate Norbert Hofer Narrowly Loses Presidential Vote

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