• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Austrian Presidential Elections: Right-wing Populist Hofer Admits Defeat In Run-off

Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Familienoberhauptvogel

Banned
Norbert Hofer admitted his defeat on his facebook page, we're still waiting for Innsbruck to recount their ballots for an official statement.

DDiDtt4.png


Yesterday during the ballot it was basically 50/50 and we had to wait for postal votes to be the deciding factor. Historically a demography favourable for the Green party and candidate Alexander Van der Bellen.


Update: It's official VdB wins with 50.3% and ~30.000 votes difference, at 4+ million voters.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Unpleasantly close, but a huge win for the Austrian Greens.

Still, 0.4% between the two! That's really something.
 
H

hobblygobbly

Member
It's good that Hofer didn't win, these elections give a good glimpse of what to expect with the parliamentary elections which I imagine will be just as close.
 
Z

Zatoth

Member
Did not expect that result. I assumed it would be a clear victory for Hofer. Glad I was wrong. But still scary that such a huge number of voters decided on him.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
darkace said:
Two awful choices, but at least the slightly less awful choice won.
Click to expand...

Slightly?
Norbert Hofer as president would've meant a very likely minority government for the FPÖ come the next election, and that likely would not have been in even 2 years - Hofer very likely would've dismissed the government very soon. And they definitely would've worked at chipping away the democratic structures within the Austrian Republic in order to make it a more dictatorial state like Hungary and Poland.

With Van der Bellen as president, even if we get a chancellor Strache in 2 years, we won't get a minority FP government. There has to be at least a coalition, and that coalition partnership will heavily soften the blows against the democratic structures. Unless that coalition partner is the ÖVP, then it's probably going to be a repeat of 2000-2007.
 
F

Familienoberhauptvogel

Banned
hobblygobbly said:
It's good that Hofer didn't win, these elections give a good glimpse of what to expect with the parliamentary elections which I imagine will be just as close.
Click to expand...

We have 6+ parties so looking at the first round would be more indicative and the 2 governing parties fared awfully there but with less than popular candidates. The reigning party even changed leadership since the 1st round. Still scary but I don't expect a first place for FPÖ any time soon.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
Familienoberhauptvogel said:
We have 6+ parties so looking at the first round would be more indicative and the 2 governing parties fared awfully there but with less than popular candidates.
Click to expand...

It's very likely Team Stronach is going to disintegrate (with their voters probably going straight to the FP) and Irmgard Griss might opt into founding a party - she's been sorta hinting at that possibility after her strong success in the presidential election. I assume she will try to fish for the centrist votes that are spread across all of the parties.

Familienoberhauptvogel said:
The reigning party even changed leadership since the 1st round. Still scary but I don't expect a first place for FPÖ any time soon.
Click to expand...

I'm super glad the SPÖ woke up from their coma after the presidential election. It's a shame the ÖVP didn't. Then again, the more the ÖVP loses, the better.
 
K

Kater

Banned
Man I was so happy to hear this, I was so anxious until now. So glad that Strache won't have his personal puppet Hofer in the Hofburg and instead an opposition to his party.
 
Z

Zatoth

Member
Red Arremer said:
It's very likely Team Stronach is going to disintegrate (with their voters probably going straight to the FP) and Irmgard Griss might opt into founding a party - she's been sorta hinting at that possibility after her strong success in the presidential election. I assume she will try to fish for the centrist votes that are spread across all of the parties.
Click to expand...

I'd welcome a party of Griss. News parties tend to take away voters from the FPÖ. The only good thing about Team Stronach.
 
K

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
That was scary close. The result is still scary, because half of the people voted for an extremist. but at least there is no immediate aftermath for it.

Hopefully the former big parties will end their coma, one way or another, because at this point they only hurt everything and help FPÖ.
 
F

Familienoberhauptvogel

Banned
Zatoth said:
I'd welcome a party of Griss. News parties tend to take away voters from the FPÖ. The only good thing about Team Stronach.
Click to expand...

Except the NEOS were the nail in the coffin that is ÖVP. Maybe we can talk about gay marriage again once they are out of the government.

Red Arremer said:
It's very likely Team Stronach is going to disintegrate (with their voters probably going straight to the FP) and Irmgard Griss might opt into founding a party - she's been sorta hinting at that possibility after her strong success in the presidential election. I assume she will try to fish for the centrist votes that are spread across all of the parties.

I'm super glad the SPÖ woke up from their coma after the presidential election. It's a shame the ÖVP didn't. Then again, the more the ÖVP loses, the better.
Click to expand...

I voted Griss but she didn't seem to take the loss very well. If she can keep the church out of it I might be along a new party, I usually vote for the lesser evil nowadays.
 
I

Iokis

Member
I was clenched till the news broke over Twitter (as just about every Austrian news outlet went down under the weight of all those refreshes).

But this is less of a victory and more of a warning shot - Van der Bellen, the Greens and indeed political parties across Europe need to take a good hard look at what they can do to stop right-wing populism sweeping across the continent.

The threat might not have managed to come through the door, but they're going to keep knocking on it.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
Familienoberhauptvogel said:
And the NEOS finally the nail in the coffin that is ÖVP. Maybe we can talk about gay marriage again once they are out of the government.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the long-term survivability of the NEOS. The LIF did quite well in their first election but sunk further and further each time.

Also a big shame Heide Schmidt completely pulled out of politics. She's such a smart and fantastic politician.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
Familienoberhauptvogel said:
I voted Griss but she didn't seem to take the loss very well. If she can keep the church out of it I might be along a new party, I usually vote for the lesser evil nowadays.
Click to expand...

I voted Griss as well. She has massive potential to pull in a lot of the centrist voters from the FPÖ that are upset with the SPÖVP structures.
Also, her societal position is more liberal (she is definitely in favour of gay marriage, for instance), so I doubt she'd try to appeal to the hardcore Christian audience the ÖVP tries to serve.
 
F

Familienoberhauptvogel

Banned
Red Arremer said:
I voted Griss as well. She has massive potential to pull in a lot of the centrist voters from the FPÖ that are upset with the SPÖVP structures.
Also, her societal position is more liberal (she is definitely in favour of gay marriage, for instance), so I doubt she'd try to appeal to the hardcore Christian audience the ÖVP tries to serve.
Click to expand...

It'd be nice to have a party one likes for a change. We need another right fleshling party in time for next parliamentary election though, it worked the last couple times.
 
D

Dr_LucienSanchez

Banned
Thank Christ. Have a few family members that voted for Hofer, so I imagine they're gutted (can't wait to have a chat with them though, that'll be fun).
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
that half the population supports Hofer and Strache is still a reason of concern, not that I'm surprised about it at all
 
I

Iksenpets

Banned
hobblygobbly said:
It's good that Hofer didn't win, these elections give a good glimpse of what to expect with the parliamentary elections which I imagine will be just as close.
Click to expand...

Not an expert on Austrian government, but at least in parliament the other parties can form an anti-far-right coalition, even if these guys take a plurality of seats, correct? Or is this a situation where the Greens would never accept coalition with the traditional parties or something?
 
V

Varjet

Member
Violet_0 said:
that half the population supports Hofer and Strache is still a reason of concern, not that I'm surprised about it at all
Click to expand...

Well, afaik one of the most common motives of voters (on either side) was preventing a victory of the other guy.
 
D

Des0lar

will learn eventually
Very close call but so glad it all worked out in the end.
goodjob.gif


Now off to Facebook to indulge in FPÖ tears
 
D

Dingens

Member
hobblygobbly said:
It's good that Hofer didn't win, these elections give a good glimpse of what to expect with the parliamentary elections which I imagine will be just as close.
Click to expand...

Violet_0 said:
that half the population supports Hofer and Strache is still a reason of concern, not that I'm surprised about it at all
Click to expand...

that's not a good conclusion to draw from this....
Both candidates were somewhat polarizing in their own way and just as there were VdB voter who just voted for him because they didn't want Hofer to win, the opposite might be true as well. And I really doubt that most people who voted for Hofer truly knew what this guy was really about (see below)

What we see here is the cumulation of ~6 parties fused into two.
The FPÖ cannot win in a multi-party system. The first round, although primarily about personalities rather than parties showed that clearly.

If anything we should be glad that we dodged a bullet this time and get to work on how to unmask the far right, and expose their true face to the public. from personal experience, there are about 3 groups of people who vote for them:
1) straight up neo-nazis
2) "concerned citizens" who are looking for easy answers to complex issues such as immigration
3) people who honestly believe that the FPÖ is actually a party with leftist policy...

Calling them out for being xenophobic rightwing biggots hasn't worked the last 40 years, and this strategies effectiveness is dwindling even further
 
D

Durante

Member
This was far closer than it should have been. At least it made people interested in politics again I guess.

darkace said:
Two awful choices, but at least the slightly less awful choice won.
Click to expand...
I don't see it. Van der Bellen isn't fantastic or anything, but he hardly qualifies as "awful".
 
S

Sulik2

Member
If he was running on the standard right-wing muslims are scary platform its not surprising he got this many votes. Nothing like drawing out the fear and latent racism in huge chunks of the worlds population to get into office.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
Iksenpets said:
Not an expert on Austrian government, but at least in parliament the other parties can form an anti-far-right coalition, even if these guys take a plurality of seats, correct? Or is this a situation where the Greens would never accept coalition with the traditional parties or something?
Click to expand...

This would be technically correct to my knowledge, yes.
The Greens are perfectly fine making coalitions with the other parties. I can see a strong front made of SPÖ, NEOS and Greens in the upcoming election, and I would definitely welcome a red-pink-green coalition.

I only see the ÖVP losing by a large margin.
 
D

Durante

Member
Red Arremer said:
I only see the ÖVP losing by a large margin.
Click to expand...
I agree, but while that would usually be a joyous occasion, it's marred by the fact that I see the vast majority of those voters going straight to the FPÖ. And if you combine that with the expected reduction in the SPÖ base it paints an ugly picture.

Zatoth said:
And they know about NLP and chemtrails now.
Click to expand...
I heard that the Bilderberg group planned the result of this election from the beginning.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
Durante said:
I agree, but while that would usually be a joyous occasion, it's marred by the fact that I see the vast majority of those voters going straight to the FPÖ. And if you combine that with the expected reduction in the SPÖ base it paints an ugly picture.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping for Griss to pull through and make a party, and for the SPÖ to wake up. That change of their half of the cabinet shows that there's certainly realization there. I know that deep within the machinations of the SPÖ, the same old guard will sit at the levers, but I do hope that there might be some revolution within it within the next 2 years.

The SPÖ has been given a final chance to prove it is willing to be modern and try to solve problems. I am optimistic about it happening. The ÖVP will stay stagnant, and I hope that if Griss comes in, her party and the Neos will take more from the VP voters than the FP does. In fact, I'm hoping Griss will sap some strength from the FP as well - she can easily target the centrist people who are fed up with the 2 government parties but don't want to vote Green or Neos. And that is not an insignificant portion of the FP voters.
 
Z

Zatoth

Member
Will also be interesting to see if this will lead to a power struggle in the FPÖ. But don't know too much about Hofer and his ambitions.
 
I

iamaustrian

Member
the just aired presidential statement by van der bellen was great.
He will be a very good president for our beautiful country.
what an overly intelligent and wise old man.
the gandalf of austrian politics.
 
D

Durante

Member
Zatoth said:
Will also be interesting to see if this will lead to a power struggle in the FPÖ. But don't know too much about Hofer and his ambitions.
Click to expand...
A Strache/Hofer power struggle would be beautiful (and poetic, evil destroying itself and all that), but I don't see it happening.
 
G

Gutek

Member
The west is moving to the right. Although Austria got lucky, the overall trends are disconcerting.

Don't fuck with the middle class.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Locked
Austria repeated presidential election: Far-right's Hofer defeated
2 3
103
15K
Mivey replied
Austrian Elections 2017 |OT| Voting right wing parties into parliament since 1949
4 5 6 7 8
377
40K
Red Arremer replied
  • Locked
Austrian presidential election to be repeated
0
944
Red Arremer replied
  • Locked
Court overturns Austria presidential poll
2
96
11K
Fliesen replied
  • Locked
Austrian Presidential Elections: First Results Show Right-wing Populist Triumph
3 4 5 6 7
312
33K
patapuf replied
Top Bottom