Fresh crisis for Europe as far-right gets Austrian election result overturned

Far-right wingers will get another shot at victory in the Austrian presidential election after the country’s highest court ordered the poll must be re-run. The anti-immigration Freedom Party won its challenge in the Constitutional Court after claiming there were widespread irregularities in the count during the election in May. Political scientists said it appeared to be the first time that a nationwide vote will have to be repeated “in any modern world democracy”. It will also re-open deep divisions in Austria, which came within a whisker of electing anti-EU, far-right candidate Norbert Hofer in the first poll.

Only the total adherence to electoral standards secures the citizens’ trust in our democracy

Gerhard Holzinger, head of Austria’s Constitutional Court

Mr Hofer lost the run-off vote by less than a percentage point to former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen. There were about 30,000 votes between them as the far-right galavanised support from blue-collar workers worried about immigration and falling living standards. But the court found more than twice that number of postal ballots had been affected by breaches of the electoral code. It found no proof that the result had been manipulated but the possibility that the outcome might have been affected was enough to order a re-run. “There was sloppiness,” Austrian interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka admitted.

To those in Austria who go to war for the Islamic State or rape women - I say to those people: ‘This is not your home’.

Mr Hofer’s campaign focused on immigration fears

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