Austrians vote environmentalist over populist for presidency

[webfact]

Austrians vote environmentalist over populist for presidency

 

 

VIENNA: -- Former Green party leader Alexander Van Der Bellen will be the next President of Austria.

 

Pollsters had thought that the race would be too close to call but soon after results started coming in, Van Der Bellen had already taken a decisive lead with 53.6 percent of the vote.

 

The far right Freedom Party candidate, Norbert Hofer, conceded defeat in an surprisingly conciliatory fashion when he announced: “I have always said, the winner will be a good winner and the loser will be a good loser. And I ask all the people who have voted for me to accept that in a democracy the voter is always right, always. And that in the end we all have to unite and stand together. That is of special importance”.

 

A relieved Alexander Van Der Bellen talked about his ambition to be a President that the Austrians will call their own saying: “I hope that when people recognise me on the street or on the village green or in Vienna’s underground six years from now at the end of my term they’ll say, ‘look, there is our federal president’, not the federal president but everyone’s president.”

 

Faced with a stark choice between a far-right, populist or a pro European environmentalist, the Austrian people chose the latter.

 

EU leaders will be relieved at this result which was widely seen as a gauge for the wave of anti-establishment,right wing populism sweeping Western democracies.

 

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel summed up the mood among European leaders saying: “A weight has fallen from all of Europe’s shoulders. If it is confirmed, the result is a clear victory for reason against right-wing populism.”

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-12-05

 

[webfact]

Mainstream relief as leftist candidate wins in Austria

By GEORGE JAHN

 

VIENNA (AP) — Left-leaning Alexander Van der Bellen triumphed over his right-wing rival Sunday in the vote for Austria's presidency, a victory welcomed by moderate politicians across Europe as a blow against the populist forces looking to weaken the European Union.

 

While the Austrian presidency is a mostly symbolic post, it had attracted attention from across Europe as the next possible victory for populists after political outsider Donald Trump's presidential win in the United States and the Brexit vote in Britain.

 

"What happens here today has relevance for all of Europe," Van der Bellen said he cast his ballot, later noting that his win showed most voters backed his message of "freedom, equality, solidarity."

 

With all votes except for absentee ballots counted, Van der Bellen had 51.68 percent of the vote to 48.32 percent for Norbert Hofer. But pollsters predicted a final result of 53.3 percent to 46.7 percent in favor of Van der Bellen once the approximately 500,000 absentee ballots were tallied. The final result of Sunday's vote was expected by Tuesday at the latest.

 

Van der Bellen said the win sends a "message to the capitals of the European Union that one can win elections with high European positions." He said he would work to unite a country deeply split between the moderate liberals who voted for him and supporters of Hofer's anti-immigrant Freedom Party.

 

Powerful euroskeptic populist politicians facing elections next year in other EU nations shrugged off Hofer's loss as a temporary setback, but the result was greeted with relief and congratulations by mainstream politicians.

 

French President Francois Hollande said Austrians "made the choice of Europe, and openness." Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, who heads Germany's center-left Social Democrats, told the Bild newspaper that "a load has been taken off the mind of all of Europe." He called the result "a clear victory for good sense against right-wing populism."

 

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said Van der Bellen "will represent Austria domestically and abroad in an excellent manner" — alluding to fears by establishment politicians that a victory by Hofer, whose anti-immigrant Freedom Party is critical of the 28-nation EU, would hurt Austria's image. Van der Bellen is liberal, left-of-center and pro-EU.

 

Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, called the victory a defeat for "anti-European, backward-looking populism."

 

With polls estimating that the two candidates were neck-and-neck ahead of the vote, Van der Bellen's margin of victory was unexpected.

 

Political scientist Kathrin Stainer Haemmerle told the Austria Press Agency said that despite widespread disenchantment with establishment parties in Austria, the results show "the majority of the population is not looking for radical change."

 

Still, Van der Bellen's victory presages new possible divisions.

 

The new Austrian president-elect has said he would refuse to swear in a government led by the Freedom Party. But with the Freedom Party given a good chance of winning the parliamentary election less than two years away, Van der Bellen might be forced to act on that pledge. If he is true to his word, he would plunge Austria into a political crisis with unforeseen consequences.

 

Hofer, meanwhile, conceded his loss in a Facebook posting. Acknowledging that he was "endlessly sad," Hofer said "I would have been happy to take care of our Austria." He urged voters of both camps to bury their differences and work together.

 

Appearing later with Van der Bellen, Hofer said his loss "is really very painful ... but the voter is always right in a democracy."

 

Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen of France and anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders in the Netherlands tweeted their support for Hofer as voting took place Sunday, then later made the best of his loss. The two, who both face their own national elections next year, congratulated Hofer on his strong showing.

 

Le Pen, who hopes to ride anti-immigrant, anti-EU sentiment to the French presidency, tweeted that Hofer and his Freedom Party "fought with courage."

 

"Victory will be theirs in the next legislative election!" she added.

 

Congratulating Van der Bellen, EU Council President Donald Tusk said "the continued constructive contribution of Austria to finding common European solutions and keeping our European unity will remain essential."

 

In Germany, top opposition Green leader Simone Peter called Sunday's result "a good day for Austria and Europe."

"The right-wing rabble-rousers have to be stopped!" Peter declared.

 

The election Sunday was a rerun of a vote in May that Van der Bellen narrowly won. Austria's Constitutional Court ordered the repeat following a court ruling after Hofer's Freedom Party claimed widespread voting irregularities.

___

Philipp Jenne, Amer Cohadzic, Zenel Zhinipotoku, Florent Bajrami, Matteo Wick and Eldar Emric in Vienna and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Angela Charlton in Paris and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-12-05

[elgordo38]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“A weight has fallen from all of Europe’s shoulders. If it is confirmed, the result is a clear victory for reason against right-wing populism.”

 

Don't look now but I think the Italians just put the weight back on.

[jesimps]

A lesson to you lefties in how to accept defeat gracefully and democratically. 

No calls for recounts, second elections or court judgments from the right. It's called taking it on the chin.

 

[SheungWan]

19 minutes ago, jesimps said:

A lesson to you lefties in how to accept defeat gracefully and democratically. 

No calls for recounts, second elections or court judgments from the right. It's called taking it on the chin.

 

 

Funny that because the Austrian Presidential election was exactly that, a second election.

[KhunBENQ]

50 minutes ago, SheungWan said:

 

Funny that because the Austrian Presidential election was exactly that, a second election.

And the second schedule for election was cancelled because a  German company supplied envelopes for absentee voting that did not stick properly

Funny how lofty this 5x percent win is acclaimed from the "Europeans".

Only a slight stumble.

[SheungWan]

23 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

And the second schedule for election was cancelled because a  German company supplied envelopes for absentee voting that did not stick properly

Funny how lofty this 5x percent win is acclaimed from the "Europeans".

Only a slight stumble.

 

Acclaimed as a defeat for the pro-fascist party which seemingly disappoints some of our Brexiteer friends. Fancy that!

[dick dasterdly]

12 minutes ago, SheungWan said:

 

Acclaimed as a defeat for the pro-fascist party which seemingly disappoints some of our Brexiteer friends. Fancy that!

I agree entirely that this election defeated the far right-wing party (and, of course the current President).  It certainly took me by suprise - which only proves how stereotypes can become ingrained if we don't know any of the people from that country. 

 

It will be interesting to see whether the Green Party now put into force their 'green' policies.

 

 

[dunroaming]

I was quite surprised by the result.  Always think of Austria being right wing to quite an extreme.  Shows how wrong you can be

[rockingrobin]

36 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

I agree entirely that this election defeated the far right-wing party (and, of course the current President).  It certainly took me by suprise - which only proves how stereotypes can become ingrained if we don't know any of the people from that country. 

 

It will be interesting to see whether the Green Party now put into force their 'green' policies.

 

 

The incumbent wasnt eligible to stand 

[dick dasterdly]

8 minutes ago, rockingrobin said:

The incumbent wasnt eligible to stand 

I'll take your word for it (as the first page of google has nothing but 'far-right Hofer defeated')!

 

Presumably the incumbent political party was also defeated, but for some reason this is being ignored.

Edited December 5, 2016 by dick dasterdly

[rockingrobin]

18 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

I'll take your word for it (as the first page of google has nothing but 'far-right Hofer defeated')!

 

Presumably the incumbent political party was also defeated, but for some reason this is being ignored.

I dont understand your reference 'Presumably the incumbent political party was also defeated, but for some reason this is being ignored.'

If you understood the process and followed the election  it becomes self explanatory

The president can only serve 2 terms

[dick dasterdly]

19 minutes ago, rockingrobin said:

I dont understand your reference 'Presumably the incumbent political party was also defeated, but for some reason this is being ignored.'

If you understood the process and followed the election  it becomes self explanatory

The president can only serve 2 terms

So the incumbent political party wasn't defeated?

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, dunroaming said:

I was quite surprised by the result.  Always think of Austria being right wing to quite an extreme.  Shows how wrong you can be

I expected the Nazi one to win too, but happy with this result!

 

I reckon Conchita is happy too ...

 

Some insight on POPULISM which recently won in the UK and the USA, but this time lost in Austria.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2016/12/02/the-most-ambitious-irritating-hopeful-and-overrated-books-of-2016-and-the-best-one-too/?utm_term=.9e365b5e85bd

By building a framework for understanding populist movements — they are not just anti-elitist, but also anti-pluralist and politically exclusionary — Müller elucidates the strategy and appeal of the Trump phenomenon, and the divisions it has revealed and created. The “core claim” of populism, he writes, is that “only some of the people are really the people.”

 

 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Jingthing

[ALFREDO]

1 hour ago, rockingrobin said:

The incumbent wasnt eligible to stand 

The usual big parties of the past candidates, from SPÖ and ÖVP had been voted out in the first round.

Shamefully low votes for these canditates. Lol ?

[ALFREDO]

1 hour ago, dick dasterdly said:

I agree entirely that this election defeated the far right-wing party (and, of course the current President).  It certainly took me by suprise - which only proves how stereotypes can become ingrained if we don't know any of the people from that country. 

 

It will be interesting to see whether the Green Party now put into force their 'green' policies.

 

 

You know me here on thaivisa from that country. ?

But you do not know that the real decisions in Austria are made from the Primeminister and the Parliament.

The President in Austria is similar to the German and French President.

He can only speak green but is no decisions maker in the day by day political life. 

But is choosing who shall try to bring a Parlamentary majority together. ☺

[ALFREDO]

1 hour ago, dunroaming said:

I was quite surprised by the result.  Always think of Austria being right wing to quite an extreme.  Shows how wrong you can be

Where you get your informations from. Lol?

Until now the FPÖ right wing party had maximum around 30 % in Parliamentary elections.

We have to wait for the next one to see the outcome. ☺

[elgordo38]

3 hours ago, SheungWan said:

 

Funny that because the Austrian Presidential election was exactly that, a second election.

Austria is not that big a country yet the Euro boys are really trumpeting it as a great victory. As you say it was a second election. Somebody must have gotten names off of Tombstones on the first go round. 

[dunroaming]

22 minutes ago, ALFREDO said:

Where you get your informations from. Lol?

Until now the FPÖ right wing party had maximum around 30 % in Parliamentary elections.

We have to wait for the next one to see the outcome. ☺

 

I am deliriously happy to be proved wrong and thank you for your input!

[jollyhangmon]

No, you thought wrong there my friend, Austria ain't 'extreme right wing' while admittedly leaning rather to the 'conservative' side, as of lately at least.
Two major parties about same size - one medium-left, one medium right - used to share the majority of popular votes (starting from well over 80% together) as well as power from after WW II to this day.
As pretty much everywhere else other parties came up, dunno, say 30, 25 years ago, mainly 'Greens' a bit left of medium-left and finally 'Freiheitliche' (= Freedom Party, roughly translated), Hofers combo and - over all - fairly right, yes.

This recent (presi-) election is not really a good indicator, the candidates of the two major parties where out in the first run (basically due to being rather featureless persons, not necessarily a bad thing per se but sure in most elections)  their voters - together roughly just 50% nowadays as shown in 2013 vote for National Council which basically reflects in actual parliamentary seats - were left with the choice between 2 candidates they didn't fancy in the first place (as far as political preferences go) or let it be at all.
Presidential elections are always seen more as 'Personality or sympathy votes' than anything else with the position of presi being a mainly representative one in AT.

 

Here are the more significant results of said 2013 elections to National Council: 27% med-left, 24% med-right, 21% 'righter' (freedom party), 13% green, 15% others at an over-all participation of 75% of the electorate.

 

Yesterdays presidential election: roughly 53% for the left wing candidate and therefore around 47% right wingers, participation around 70%, postal votes anticipated dumb-times-pi for the time being.

So much for that.

 

Now, did the 2 major fractions lose a lot of support over the last 3 decades? Yes, very much so, from an accumulated 80% up to just around 50% now.
Did the 'pronounced' right gain a lot? Yes again, from theoretical 0 to a good 20% currently. Freedom party always gathered up the majority of fatigued, even more so of protest voters. It was/is their main slogan (again as pretty much anywhere else, as you will have observed) to >stop  stagnancy<, >give the homeland back to the xxx's (fill in desired country)< and >fight the establishment< whatever the hell that means, all that  - of course - >with gods help< etc., pp. ... without doubt the refugee-situation worked well in their favor  over recent years, just as it did in Germany, Hungary, Switzerlaendle, Netherlands, pretty much all of former Yugoslavia just to name a few.
As elsewhere (Donald The Great ?!) basically a lot of hot air with few to none actual and viable 'solutions' - otherwise regarded to as 'populist'.

On the contrary, they had their way in one rather small province of AT for a few years and subsequently funked up even more than their predecessors, expensive lesson and the courts are still busy.

 

'Extreme' right wingers naturally represent the sediment of that combo, over all a rather small fraction, my guess would be less but let's say maybe up to a quarter of their voters, that would be around 5% of the total electorate then, tops.