Austria far-right camp concedes defeat in race

VIENNA: Austria’s Freedom Party conceded defeat on Sunday in its bid to elect Europe’s first farright president, as projections showed its candidate Norbert Hofer lagging behind in a bitterly fought election re-run.

Greens-backed independent Alexander Van der Bellen, 72, swept 53.6% of the votes, while his rival of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe) received 46.4% , projections showed.

The official result of the marathon presidential election, which lasted nearly a year, is not expected before Monday, but the party conceded defeat within minutes of the poll projections being released, shortly after voting ended. “I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr Van der Bellen,” FPOe chief strategist Herbert Kickl told Austrian media.

The outcome deals a crushing blow to Hofer who already narrowly lost to Van der Bellen in a first runoff in May, which was then annulled over ballot counting breaches.

Observers feared that a win for the far-right could trigger a domino effect with key elections next year in France, Germany and The Netherlands.