AUSTRIA’S far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) is finding it hard to come to terms with defeat. On December 4th its candidate, Norbert Hofer, lost to Alexander van der Bellen (pictured), an ex-leader of the Green party, in a rerun of the country’s presidential election. Two days later the FPÖ’s leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, blamed the loss on “overwhelming media power”, which painted Mr Hofer as “the devil incarnate”. On social media, Mr Hofer’s supporters alleged massive voter fraud.
Their disappointment was understandable. Mr Hofer drew a respectable 46.2% of the votes, but he had expected to win, after falling just 31,000 votes short in the initial election in May. (That vote was annulled by the country’s constitutional court because of irregularities.) Instead, Mr Van der Bellen’s lead grew. Every other big party, as well as business leaders, artists, intellectuals and the mainstream media rallied behind him, hoping to avoid the embarrassment of being the first country in Western Europe to elect a far-right head of state since the second world war. The result suggested that most Austrians remain committed to European integration, the main theme of…
The Economist: Europe
