Austrian presidential candidate Norbert Hofer
Austria will provide a new gauge of the populist wave sweeping Western democracies on Sunday, as the divided country holds an election that could deliver the first freely elected far-right head of state in Europe since World War Two.
The knife-edge presidential run-off is all the more dramatic for being a re-run of an election held six months ago – before Britain chose to leave the European Union and Americans elected Donald Trump as president – offering an indication of whether popular anger at the political establishment has grown.
When Norbert Hofer of the anti-immigration and anti-Islam Freedom Party (FPO) narrowly lost the original run-off in May with 49.65 percent of the vote, European governments breathed a sigh of relief. Far-right parties like France’s National Front cheered the record performance.
That result, however, was overturned due to irregularities in the counting of postal ballots. Opinion polls suggest the re-run between Hofer and former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen is too close to call and could again come down to postal votes, meaning the final result might come as late as Tuesday.
Polling stations opened on a cold, crisp Sunday morning. The first projections are due shortly after 5 p.m. (1600 GMT), once the last polls have closed. No turnout figures will be released before then, the Interior Ministry said.
A Hofer win would raise the prospect of two near-simultaneous blows to Europe’s political establishment. Italy is holding a referendum on Sunday on constitutional reform that could decide the political future of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has promised to resign if he loses.
Austria’s president traditionally has a largely ceremonial role, but Hofer has made clear he wants to be an interventionist head of state, threatening to dismiss a government if it raises taxes and calling for referendums on a range of issues, even though referendums are beyond the job’s remit.
The president also plays an important part in forming coalitions. Van der Bellen has said he would try to prevent an FPO-led government even if it won an election. The FPO is running first in polls with support of roughly a third of voters, with parliamentary elections due in 2018.
‘Don’t interfere,’ Austria’s far-right presidential candidate tells Nigel Farage
Far-right candidate Nortbert Hofer has ruled out calling a referendum on Austria’s membership of the European Union, and called on Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, not to “interfere” in Austrian politics by calling for such a referendum.
“It is not something I want. We need to build a stronger union,” he said, although he made clear he would oppose Turkish membership or further moves to centralize the bloc.
“I would ask Mr Farage not to interfere in internal Austrian affairs,” he said.
Mr Farage had said on Friday that Mr Hofer would call for a Brexit style referendum on Austria’s EU membership should he win.
@ ArnoldHarris:
you are correct… but I beleive he lost already…likely due to his pronouncements for intervention and upsetting the traditional model.
@ bernard ross:
BR, I wouldn’t be so sure as your are that the Austrian president — if Hofer wins — will be limited to ceremonialism.
Arnol Harris, Outspeaker
austrian presidency is primarily ceremonial and symbolic like a constititutional monarch..