Van der Bellen wins Austria’s presidential election

NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Vienna that Hofer called on his supporters to respect the outcome of the vote.

Jewish leaders in Europe have expressed relief that Austrian voters have rejected a far-right politician as president in Sunday’s election.

“Thank god for this result”, said Iraqi refugee Mahmoud, as Van der Bellen entered the room at a fashionable Vienna hotel to the strains of Queen’s “We are the Champions”.

At 72, the grey-haired economics professor often cut a wooden and somewhat dishevelled figure on the campaign trail next to smooth-talking gun enthusiast Hofer, 45.

The Austrian vote pits Alexander Van der Bellen against Norbert Hofer.

“Thanks for walking this very, very, very long path with us”, read a message from Van der Bellen on a giant screen.

A right-wing populist has just been defeated in the Austrian presidential elections.

Van der Bellen’s win kept Austria from becoming the first European Union country since World War II to elect a far-right head of state.

Political scientist Kathrin Stainer Haemmerle told the Austria Press Agency said that despite widespread disenchantment with establishment parties in Austria, the results show “the majority of the population is not looking for radical change”. He shows that there is an alternative that is not right-wing populism. “The liberal majority pushes back”.

A win for Mr Hofer would have made him Europe’s first freely elected far-right head of state since World War Two.

According to CNN, Van der Bellen gave a speech on Austrian state TV where he said he “campaigned for a pro-European Austria”.

He told his closing rally on Friday that Mr Hofer was trying to “demolish the house of Austria” instead of trying to fix it with “reason”.

He said 200 mayors spoke in favour of Van der Bellen as a candidate, and this had a strong impact because in Austria this office holds considerable prestige.

There has been speculation about whether Chancellor Christian Kern’s Social Democrats and the conservative People’s Party will manage to keep working together until their mandate expires in 2018. Hofer has 46.4 percent.

The official results are expected to come out on Monday, after absentee votes have been tallied.

The margin is a surprise.

Acknowledging that he was “endlessly sad”, Hofer said.

Anton Mahdalik, a senior member of the anti-immigration group, hit out at Farage for telling Fox News the Freedom Party would hold an European Union referendum in Austria.

Hofer conceded defeat in Sunday’s election via a Facebook post.

The election is a rerun from May, which Van der Bellen won by less than 1 percentage point. His right-wing populist Freedom Party brought an appeal and Austria’s Constitutional Court ordered the election to be run again.

“I congratulate Alexander Van der Bellen on his success and call on all Austrians to stick together and work together”.

Austria – a nation of 8.7 million – has taken in more than 120,000 migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia since since past year, bearing much of the burden of the influx together with Germany and Sweden. But the election is being watched as a barometer of how populists in other European Union countries may fare in coming months.