Austria’s anti-immigrant candidate, Norbert Hofer, has failed in his bid to become the country’s first far right leader since World War II, in an election seen as a test for the strength of populist movements in Europe.
The former aeronautical engineer, who campaigned on an anti-establishment, anti-immigrant, anti-EU platform, conceded defeat to his environmentalist opponent, Alexander Van Der Bellen, who ran as an independent.
Media projections said Van der Bellen won with 53.3% of the vote, compared to Hofer’s 46.7%, a victory that Van der Bellen said is a “signal of hope and change” to “all the capitals of the European Union.”
Hofer had been poised to become the EU’s first far-right leader, as unease became evident in the country in the wake of a migrant crisis that has seen tens of thousands of Muslims seek asylum in Austria.
In Vienna on Sunday night, Hofer went before reporters at the city’s Hofburg Palace and pledged to keep up his efforts to ensure that the more than 46% of Austrians who voted for him were not ignored. “We are not done,” he said.