Left-leaning candidate wins Austrian presidential vote

A far-right politician who was in the running to be Austria’s next president has been defeated.

“I congratulate Alexander Van der Bellen and ask all Austrians to stick together”, said Hofer, who now serves as a deputy president of parliament.

Mr Van der Bellen, 72, is a retired economics professor who supports the European Union, free trade and liberal policies towards migrants.

Establishment politicians in Austria and Europe had been nervous about a possible Hofer victory in a year that has seen two monumental political upsets already: Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election and Britain deciding to leave the EU.

Martin Schulz, a centre-left Social Democrat from Germany, congratulated Mr Van der Bellen on winning Austria’s presidency “with a clear pro-European message and campaign”.

“With a critical referendum on Italian constitutional reform also being decided on Sunday – and general elections to be held in Germany, France and the Netherlands next year – the European Union political establishment draw some confidence in Mr Hofer’s relatively weak performance”.

“I am incredibly sad that it didn’t work”, the 45-year-old Hofer said in a message on Facebook.

Mr Van der Bellen is a former economics professor who ran as an independent backed by the Greens. I have always campaigned for a pro-European Austria.

In contrast, Hofer’s party had risen on a populist groundswell sweeping the continent caused by the European Union’s failure to make progress in the ongoing economic and migrant crises.

Van der Bellen had a clear lead over Hofer, according to a projection by pollster SORA for broadcaster ORF that included a partial vote count.

Voters had clearly taken a pro-European decision, which was not only important after Britain’s Brexit vote, but also after the victory of Donald Trump in the United States, she said.

“I congratulate our new President Van der Bellen”, Austrian Prime Minister Christian Kern said in a statement.

There is also the more distant prospect of a clash between Van der Bellen and the Freedom Party – the FPO – in the event of an FPO victory in parliamentary elections.

The Associated Press and Austria’s best read newspaper Kronen Zeitung have both called the election for leftist Van der Bellen.

“I have not managed to reach victory”, Mr Renzi said early Monday, conceding defeat at the Palazzo Chigi, his official residence.

The Freedom Party contested the outcome in Austria’s constitutional court and won, with the court citing ballot-counting irregularities and ordering a new election.

And a leader of Germany’s opposition Greens, Simone Peter, said it was “a good day for Austria and Europe”, adding that “the right-wing rabble-rousers have to be stopped!” “The right-wing rabble-rousers have to be stopped!” “The next elections will be theirs”, she wrote on Twitter, referring to Hofer’s anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe), an ally of her National Front.

The election is a rerun from May, which Van der Bellen won by less than 1 percentage point.

Defeating Hofer in Austria is only the first step in many for those who wish to keep the far-right out of power in Europe: several high-profile elections in 2017 will give similar forces an opportunity to increase their influence at the ballot box.