Off the wire
• Direct flight to link north Chinese city, Vietnam  • Urgent: Gunman kills 2 at western Austria concert  • 4,309 officials punished in frugality campaign in April  • 1st LD: Cypriots start voting in post-bailout parliamentary elections  • Armenia, China vow to deepen security, anti-terror cooperation  • Spotlight: Smoke detected on EgyptAir flight just before crash, search continues  • Death toll of Sri Lanka's floods, landslides rises to 82  • 2nd LD-Writethru: 5.3-magnitude earthquakes hit Tibet, no casualties reported  • Afghan gov't assesses reports on likely death of Taliban leader Mullah Mansoor in U.S. drone strike  • Cruzeiro rally to earn draw in ex-Portugal manager's debut  
You are here: 　 Home

Far-right, Euroskeptic candidate predicted to lead final round of Austria's presidential election

Xinhua, May 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

The final round of Austria's presidential election kicked off on Sunday morning, with a far-right and Euroskeptic candidate projected to win in a scenario unthinkable for Europe a few years ago.

Recent polls before the vote showed that the support of Norbert Hofer from the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria has surpassed Alexander Van der Bellen in a tense race, an independent candidate backed by the Green Party.

In the first-round vote last month, Hofer beat his rival by 35 percent to 21 percent, as the Austrians have become increasingly disgruntled about the government's decision last year to allow entry of migrants into the country, and about growing unemployment, which have both driven voters away from traditional parties.

The vote marked the first time since the Second World War that an Austrian president was not elected from the two ruling parties of the Social Democratic Party and the Austrian People's Party, a crashing defeat for both parties.

Hofer's win would also pave the way for his party to lead the next government after parliamentary elections, scheduled for 2018.

The European Union (EU), amid mounting pressure from anti-establishment parties, has kept a weary eye on the election, since the winning of a rightist party in the country's presidential election, the first in the 28-nation bloc, could prompt a new wave of the rise of rightism and possibly a change the political map of Austria and even Europe.

Hofer has been skeptical of the EU, and has threatened to dismiss the current government and parliament if it fails to take a tougher line on migrants, a right that has never been used by any Austrian president after 1945. Endi