For the first time since World War II, a right-wing politician could win Sunday’s election for the Austrian presidency as established parties that have dominated postwar politics watch from the sidelines.
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Norbert Hofer from Austria’s Freedom Party is neck-and-neck with the former Green Party leader Alexander Van der Bellen in the race to become the country’s next President.
Ex-Green party leader van der Bellen meanwhile thanked voters for helping him achieve a remarkable comeback after Hofer comfortably beat him by 14 percentage points in the first round.
But with more than 700,000 postal votes not due to be counted until today, the result was too close to call.
Norbert Hofer of the nationalist Freedom Party holds a slight edge in Austria’s presidential election as a victor will be called Monday.
The Austria Press Agency cited him as telling foreign reporters Sunday that he is “really OK”, and “not a unsafe person”.
But his rival, an economics professor, could also overturn the traditionally cosy relationship between Austrian presidents and governments. Under pressure to appeal to conservative voters, even van der Bellen this month was compelled to publicly reject accusations of being a “hunter hater”.
Mr Hofer and Mr Van der Bellen drew clear lines between themselves during the campaign. After casting his vote earlier in the day in Pinkafeld, a city in his eastern home state of Burgenland, Hofer replied in English after being asked about fears that he would push a far-right agenda.
“I have been in politics a long time and I have never experienced an election night like this”, Hofer, 45, told ORF. Hofer’s Freedom Party wants closed borders and campaigns consistently on strong anti-EU sentiment within the country.
Van der Bellen and left-wing commentators have warned that a vote for Hofer could pave the way to a Freedom Party government, given that the opposition rightists have been leading in national polls for the past year.
In the first round on April 24, the candidates of the Social Democrats (SPOe) and their center-right coalition partners People’s Party (OeVP), came a disastrous fourth and fifth with just 11% of the vote. But Hofer has vowed to flex the muscles of the office in new ways.
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“I am a center-right politician with a great social duty”, he told reporters.
