Norbert Hofer, the leader of Austria’s Far-Right Freedom Party, has conceded defeat in the country’s presidential elections.
Mr Hofer, who would have been the first far-right leader in the European Union, accepted defeat to Alexander Van der Bellen, the Green party backed candidate.
With only postal ballots left to count, a projection by pollster SORA for broadcaster ORF showed Mr Van der Bellen on 53.3 percent and Mr Hofer on 46.7 percent.
His victory would have been widely seen as a blow to the post-War consensus of the same magnitude as Britain’s vote for Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as US president last month.
It would also have been hailed by other far-right movements like Marine Le Pen’s Front National in France and Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom in the Netherlands.
Casting his vote in his home town of Pinkafeld earlier on Sunday, Mr Hofer ruled out an EU referendum
“It is not something I want. We need to build a stronger union,” he said. He said he would oppose Turkish membership or further centralisation of the EU.
However this is only appears to be the beginning for the Far Right Party. The Freedom Party of Austria is a right-wing populist political party led by Heinz-Christian Strache, and a member of the Europe of Nations and Freedom group in the European Parliament.
“As a lone party against the Social Democrats, the Popular Party, the Greens, and others, and the establishment media, we still took 2.2 million votes,” a Council Member said in an interview at the party’s Vienna headquarters shortly after Mr Hofer conceded.
“We are now in pole position for the parliamentary elections in 2018,” he said.
Mr Hofer had pledged to build stronger ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia and said he would also head to both Washington and Moscow if he won the presidency.
The Freedom Party was one of several far right parties to send observers to the referendum of Crimea in 2014, and a victory for Mr Hofer would have been seen as a blow to the EU sanctions regime against Mr Putin’s government.
Mr Hofer, a smooth-talking 45-year old who likes to be seen toting a hand-gun, has seen his poll numbers surge on the back of discontent at the Austrian government’s initial open-door policy to refugees fleeing the war in Syria.
In 2015, 90,000 asylum seekers entered Austria – the equivalent of one percent of the population of this country of 8.7 million.
Supporters also point to a high unemployment rate and discontent with infighting in the Social Democratic and Austrian Popular Party, the mainstream centre left and centre right parties, to explain his rise.
France is facing another major test of Europe’s populist forces in its presidential election in five months, as far-right leader Marine Le Pen hopes to ride swelling anti-immigrant, anti-EU sentiment to the presidency. Hollande is not running for re-election.
(I will be posting a piece on the French Elections and monetary issues early in the New Year).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/04/austria-election-norbert-hofer-cusp-becoming-europes-first-far/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Party_of_Austria
PistolPete 3 years, 1 month ago.
