THE string of recent victories by populists in Europe and America was interrupted on Sunday in Austria, where voters rejected the far-right candidate, Norbert Hofer, in favour of his pro-European opponent, Alexander van der Bellen, in a run-off election for the federal presidency. Mr Van der Bellen, a former leader of Austria’s Green party who ran as an independent, received a projected 53.3% to Mr Hofer’s 46.7%—a much larger margin than in their previous match-up in May, which Mr Van der Bellen won by only 31,000 votes. That election was annulled by the country’s constitutional court because of irregularities in the absentee-vote count, forcing a re-run.
Following the Brexit vote in Britain and the election of Donald Trump in America, Mr Hofer and his Freedom Party (FPÖ) had hoped to coast to victory on a similar anti-establishment sentiment. But this time the establishment won the day. In the final phase of an almost year-long campaign, the other main parties, business leaders, artists, intellectuals and the mainstream media rallied behind Mr Van der Bellen to avoid the embarrassment of electing Europe’s first far-right head of state since the second world war. A...Continue reading
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