New Austrian president warns on populism

AUSTRIA’S new president, who beat an anti-immigration candidate in a polarising and nail-biting election last year, issued a rallying call for the EU and a warning against populism as he was sworn in yesterday.

“For me the biggest danger is that we let ourselves be seduced by simple answers, that we fall into nationalism and small-country parochialism – in particular for Austria, which is a very small country,” Alexander Van der Bellen said in his inauguration speech.

“Let us not be seduced, let us not be distracted from the work of a united Europe. Maintaining this peace project is worth all our efforts,” the 73-year-old, backed by the Greens but who ran as an independent, told parliament in Vienna.

He was finally elected to the largely ceremonial post of presidency last month, defying the hopes of Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party (FPOe) to become the European Union’s first far-right head of state.

Hofer, 45 – like other “anti-system” politicians in Europe and Donald Trump in the US – stoked concerns about immigration and security in the wake of Europe's migrant crisis and a string of Islamist terror attacks in the continent.

The victory of Van der Bellen, a former economics professor and ex-leader of the Greens, was greeted with relief by centrist politicians around Europe.