After absentee ballots were counted Monday, Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent candidate who once led the leftist Greens, emerged as the victor over Norbert Hofer, a 45-year-old gun-toting leader in the far-right Freedom Party who had railed against refugees and migrants as well as the political establishment in Austria.
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The official results of the run-off election have yet to be announced, with absentee ballots set to decide the election after Sunday’s vote resulted in a dead heat between the two candidates.
“Of course I am sad”, Hofer said on Facebook. “I would have loved to have looked after this wonderful country for you as president”.
“Please do not be discouraged This election campaign is not lost but is an investment in the future”.
Direct votes Sunday gave right-winger Norbert Hofer 51.9 percent while Alexander Van der Bellen, a Greens politician running as an independent, got to 48.1 percent.
Sentiment began shifting as Austria took in 90,000 asylum seekers a year ago, while neighboring Germany opened its borders to more than one million migrants, many of them fleeing Syria’s long and deadly civil war.
Mr Hofer, from the Austrian Freedom Party, had been neck and neck with the Green Party-backed Van der Bellen while votes were being counted yesterday.
Van der Bellen also will have to contend with the forces that represent about half of the country – based on the race results – that catapulted Hofer to the cusp of the presidency in the first place. Van der Bellen was declared the victor with 31,026 votes more than his opponent, out of 4.6 million votes cast.
They suffered a historic debacle in the first round the presidential election on April 24, knocked out with 11 per cent each, and prompting chancellor Werner Faymann to quit.
According to exit poll results, Van der Bellen won many of Austria’s largest cities, such as Vienna, Graz, and Salzburg, while Hofer dominated the countryside. “It’s two halves that define Austria. and together we make this handsome Austria”. The Social Democrats (SPO) lead a coalition government with their conservative counterpart, the People’s Party (OVP).
European Jewish groups say that while they are relieved at the loss by a far-right candidate in Austria’s presidential elections, it is a wake-up call for Europe’s centrist parties.
Regarding the nearly 50-50 split in the election, Van der Bellen noted that “each half is just as important as the other” and that “together we create this wonderful Austria”.
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Its support has been boosted by the migration crisis, but Mr Hofer insists he is not fascist or racist – just a man who puts Austrians first.
