[UPDATED on 23 May at 18.35] After 24 hours of suspense, Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen was officially elected president of Austria on Monday (23 May), with 50.3 percent of votes.
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Austrian Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache conceded his party’s defeat in a posting on his Facebook page shortly before the official announcement, saying that despite a strong campaign, Hofer had finished “millimetres” short of victory.
He added: “Please don’t be disheartened”.
“I am happy that we have finally rid ourselves of the cliches attached to the party”, supporter Henriette Hakl said at the FPOe’s post-election party on Sunday evening.
Media around the continent began reporting that Hofer had finally been defeated by Van der Bellen after postal votes were taken into account, but it is now certain that the right-wing candidate will not become Austria’s head of state.
But this paper-thin margin of just 144,006 votes was erased after a record 700,000 postal votes were counted during Monday, dramatically putting van der Bellen ahead in the final furlong.
The FPOe has shaken up Austrian politics and sent shock waves through Europe before.
Austria stood at a political crossroads on Monday ahead of the final result of a knife-edge election that could make it the first European Union country with a president from the anti-immigration far-right.
With nearly half of the votes cast, or 2.2 million people, going to Hofer, Van der Bellen now has to unite a polarised nation after a bruising election campaign.
“Fifty percent confidence in Norbert Hofer is a very big showing”, Hofer’s campaign manager Herbert Kickl told public broadcaster ORF, toning down comments before the election that suggested the Freedom Party (FPO) might contest the count. Hofer had run on an anti-European Union (and, by extension, pro-Putin) platform, making immigration restrictions from Muslim-majority countries one of his signature issues.
As the result became clear, French prime minister Manuel Valls tweeted: “Relief to see the Austrians reject populism and extremism”.
Mirroring the depth of Austrian dissatisfaction with the status quo, candidates of the Social Democrats and the centrist People’s Party – the two parties that form the government coalition – were eliminated in last month’s first round of voting.
Van der Bellen’s election marks the first time since 1945 that the presidency has not been held by a candidate backed by the Social Democratic party or the conservative People’s party. Chancellor Werner Faymann resigned earlier in May as a result.
The mail ballots are expected to favor van der Bellen.
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While Austria’s president plays largely a ceremonial role, Business Insider reported that Hofer had promised to extend his executive authority.
