Pro-EU Austrians scupper far-right candidate

VIENNA: Austrians’ desire to stay anchored in the EU outweighed concerns over immigration and security and helped former Greens leader Alexander van der Bellen defeat his far-right rival Norbert Hofer in Sunday’s presidential election.

Van der Bellen, whose win bucks a trend of populist victories across Western democracies, had put Britain’s decision to leave the EU at the centre of his own campaign, warning voters not to “play with this fire”.

“I will be a pro-European president of Austria open to the world,” Van der Bellen, 72, said in his victory speech.

Hofer, whose Freedom Party is anti-immigrant and eurosceptic, had suggested at one point in the hard-fought campaign that Austrians could vote within months on whether to follow Britain out of the EU, though he later rowed back from those comments.

Austria’s economy is closely integrated with the rest of the EU, the destination last year of about 70% of its exports, worth about $97 billion (R1.34 trillion).

“Austria, as a small and open economy, profits more than average from free trade and its integration into the European market,” said Georg Kapsch, head of Austria’s Chamber of Industry, when congratulating Van der Bellen on his victory.

A Sora survey published shortly after Britain’s vote to leave the EU in June showed about 70% of Austrians would have voted to “remain” in the bloc, which the country had joined in 1994.