Austria’s Trump, neofascist Norbert Hofer, conceded defeat in Austria’s presidential election soon after polls closed last evening. Hofer, of the anti-immigration and anti-Islam Freedom Party (FPO), conceded he had been soundly beaten by former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen. Voters may have heeded Van der Bellen’s increasingly strident warnings that Hofer wanted to follow Britain’s lead and pull Austria out of the European Union.
“Should this projection really be true, at which point we can be pleased, it is a good day for Austria,” Van der Bellen’s campaign manager Lothar Lockl told ORF minutes after polls closed.
A Hofer win would have raised the prospect of two near-simultaneous blows to Europe’s political establishment. Italy is holding a referendum on Sunday on constitutional reform that could decide the political future of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has promised to resign if he loses.
What next for Austria’s Freedom Party?