Far-Right Candidate Faces Ex-Greens Leader in Austrian Presidential Run-off Vote

Supporters of right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) cheer as they wait for FPOe presidential candidate Norbert Hofer during Hofer`s final election campaign rally at the Viktor Adler Markt in Vienna, Austria, 20 May 2016. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Austria votes in the second round of presidential elections on Sunday which could bring to power the first far-right head of state in the European Union since 1945.

The run-off vote is expected to be a tight contest between Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer and former Green Party leader Alexander van der Bellen, according to the latest opinion polls.

Support for Hofer’s far-right  Freedom Party has grown on the back of the migration crisis in Europe that saw Austria taking in 90,000 asylum seekers last year, more than one percent of its population. Media reports of crimes in which immigrants have been suspects as well as asylum seekers taking avail of Austrian social benefits have boosted support for the Freedom Party.

Fear of migrants added to frustration among voters with the established main centrist parties, the Social Democrats and the People's Party, which have ruled Austria since 1945. This combination of factors resulted in a protest vote that helped Hofer win 35% of the votes in the first round of the elections last month, while Van der Belle got 21% support.

For the first time since the end of World War Two neither of Austria's two main parties made it to the run-off vote, with Hofer's victory in the first round demonstrating the growing strength of anti-establishment, Euroskeptic political parties across the EU.

A victory for Hofer on Sunday could become a springboard for his far-right party in the next general election, scheduled for 2018.

 

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