This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/24/austrian-far-right-wins-first-round-presidential-election-norbert-hofer

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 4 Version 5
Austrian far-right party wins first round of presidential election Austrian far-right party wins first round of presidential election
(about 7 hours later)
Austria’s government was licking its wounds on Monday after a historic triumph for the anti-immigrant far-right Freedom party in a presidential ballot. Austria’s government was licking its wounds after the anti-immigration far-right triumphed in presidential elections, dealing a major blow to a political establishment seen by voters as out of touch and ineffectual.
It won more than a third of the vote in Sunday’s election and will face an independent in next month’s run-off, dumping the country’s two main parties from the post for the first time. According to preliminary results, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom party came a clear first with 36% of the vote in the first round of elections for the largely, but not entirely, ceremonial post of head of state.
It was the far right’s best result in a national election after a campaign that focused on the impact of the crisis caused by the arrival of approximately 100,000 asylum seekers in Austria since last summer. Candidates from the two ruling centrist parties, which have effectively run Austria since the end of the second world war, failed to even make it into a runoff on 22 May, coming fourth and fifth each with 11% of the vote.
Norbert Hofer, who ran on an anti-immigrant and anti-Europe platform, won 36.4% of the vote to become head of state. He will face Alexander Van der Bellen, a former Green party figurehead, who won 20.4%, according to official preliminary results. The result means that for the first time since 1945, Austria will not have a president backed by either Chancellor Werner Faymann’s Social Democrats or their centre-right coalition partners, the People’s party.
While the presidency is largely a ceremonial role, the fact that neither of the main ruling parties will be battling for the post on 22 May marks a major change in Austrian politics – as well as the rising role of the far-right in Europe. Having a president in the Habsburg dynasty’s former palace in Vienna not from either of the two main parties could shake up the traditionally staid and consensus-driven world of Austrian politics.
Members of the centre-left Social Democrats and the conservative People’s party held onto the job since it was first put to a popular vote in 1951. The two parties have ruled the nation of 8.7 million in tandem for most of the postwar era. “This is the beginning of a new political era,” the Freedom party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, said after what constituted the best result at federal level for the former party of the late Joerg Haider, calling it “historic”.
The president is head of state, swears in the chancellor, has the authority to dismiss the cabinet and is commander in chief of the military. The Oesterreich tabloid described Hofer’s victory as a “tsunami that has turned our political landscape upside down”.
The election outcome was “a resounding slap in the face” for the government coalition, said Wolfgang Bachmayer, who founded market research institute OGM. Hofer is a “a kind, nice, protest politician who wraps the FPOe’s [Freedom party’s] brutal declarations against refugees in soft language”.
His comments were echoed by political analyst Peter Filzmaier. “Only those who are satisfied vote for a government party or its candidate,” he said. “This time, the annoyed voted for Norbert Hofer.” Faymann said on Sunday the result was a “clear warning to the government that we have to work together more strongly”. He said, however, that his party would not make any personnel changes – including with regard to his own position.
Around 70% of eligible voters cast their ballots, a big turnout compared with around 50% six years ago when Social Democrat Heinz Fischer, now 77, was elected for his second term. He could not run for a third term. Facing Hofer on 22 May is likely to be Alexander van der Bellen, backed by the Greens, who garnered 20%, ahead of third-place independent candidate, Irmgard Griss, who won 18.5%.
Peter McDonald, general secretary of co-ruling People’s party acknowledged the scale of the defeat after coming fifth in the poll, with just 11.2% of the vote. “We have experienced a landslide that should give the entire political centre food for thought,” he said. The only candidate who fared worse than the main parties’ candidates was Richard Lugner, an 83-year-old construction magnate and socialite married to a former Playboy model 57 years his junior, who won just over 2%.
The social democratic chancellor Werner Faymann, whose party ranked fourth, said the outcome was a clear warning to the government to work harder and cooperate better. The rise of fringe politicians has been mirrored across Europe, including in Spain, Britain and Germany, and also in the US with the populist messages of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front, who hopes to become president next year, tweeted her congratulations to the Freedom party for its “magnificent result”. “Bravo to the Austrian people,” she said.
Should Hofer get the top job, he could push to bring forward a parliamentary election due to take place in 2018 as support for his party has been growing. Polls show the Freedom party above 30%, while the coalition parties would struggle to get a combined majority. Last year, Austria received 90,000 asylum requests, the second highest in Europe on a per capita basis, and Faymann’s government has taken a firmer line on immigration in recent weeks. But this has not stopped support for the Freedom party surging. Recent opinion polls put the party in first place with more than 30% of voter intentions ahead of the next scheduled general elections in 2018.
Showing the far-right’s growing confidence in Europe, Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, hailed a “beautiful result”, writing on Twitter: “Bravo to the Austrian people”. Support for the two main parties has been sliding for years and in the last general election in 2013 they only just garnered enough support to re-form their grand coalition.
Both the candidates who made it through to the run-off had taken aim at the government over its handling of the migrant crisis. Van der Bellen criticised the government for being too harsh in its treatment of asylum applicants, while Hofer said it had been too soft. Austria’s traditionally strong economy has also faltered of late and it no longer has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union. Faymann’s coalition, in power since 2008, has struggled to agree structural reforms.
“It could hardly be any more dramatic,” said political consultant Thomas Hofer, adding that he thought Van der Bellen would face a difficult task to win the run-off with the gap between him and Hofer. David Pfarrhofer from the Market polling institute said Sunday’s result showed that the traditional parties could not continue “messing around” if they want to cling on to power.
Neither Faymann nor vice chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner from the People’s party said they would make any recommendation for the run-off. Voters should decide independently, they said. “It’s not so much about personalities but about issues … Something needs to change if the [the two main parties] want to avoid another debacle like this,” Pfarrhofer told AFP.
Reinhold Mitterlehner, head of the People’s party, appeared to agree, saying late on Sunday after the “disappointing” result that it was time to “relaunch” the coalition.