Austrians Reject Far-Right Presidential Candidate Norbert Hofer
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Austria’s voters rejected a far-right candidate for president on Sunday, the climax of a bitter yearlong campaign that was widely watched across Europe as a measure of how high fringe parties could climb in mainstream politics.
The election, normally a sleepy, provincial contest for a largely ceremonial post, had Europeans on edge for its potential to send yet another jolt to political establishments in a year when far-right populist forces have advanced on both sides of the Atlantic.
It was widely viewed as a test of the anti-migrant and anti-Muslim forces that have ridden a populist path to power in Hungary and Poland and have gained strength in France and even in Germany and the United States since the election of Donald J. Trump.
But after early projections showed him clearly lagging, Norbert Hofer, a 45-year-old leader of the Freedom Party who was seeking to become the first far-right politician elected as a head of state in postwar Europe, conceded his defeat on his Facebook page.
He congratulated his rival, a 72-year-old former leader of the Green Party, Alexander Van der Bellen, and asked “all Austrians to stick together and to work together.”
With 86 percent of the vote counted, Austrian state radio gave Mr. Bellen a lead of 6.6 percent. Mr. Van der Bellen’s supporters were predictably jubilant.
The election Sunday was a rerun of a vote this spring, when Mr. Hofer made the biggest advances of any populist in Europe, racking up almost 50 percent of the vote when he lost a presidential runoff in May by just 31,000 votes.
His party contested the slim victory of Mr. Van der Bellen, and Austria’s highest court ordered a rerun on procedural grounds. That was then postponed from October to Sunday after absentee ballots were found to have faulty glue.
Mr. Van der Bellen had appealed to Austrians to vote for reason over extremes. Mr. Hofer campaigned on an “Austria First!” slogan, and said he wanted to lead a country that was secure “for our children and grandchildren,” playing on fears of the tide of migrants and refugees that have entered Europe.
An array of establishment figures lined up behind Mr. Van der Bellen, but Mr. Hofer garnered support from mainstream conservatives in the People’s Party, which declined to throw its weight behind the former Greens leader.
In an interview last month, Mr. Hofer made it clear that he thought the American election had bolstered support for his Freedom Party.
Even Mr. Hofer’s opponents seemed resigned in recent days, fearing that Mr. Trump’s victory, in particular, was influencing the outcome here.
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