Polls are open in the second round of voting in Austria's presidential election.
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Polls are open in the second round of voting in Austria’s presidential election.
The ballot could herald the election of the European Union’s first far-right head of state.
Norbert Hofer, of the Freedom Party polled 35 percent of the vote in the first round, well short of a majority, but enough to send a shudder through Europe as far-right parties gain ground in a number of EU member states.
Big election tomorrow in small #Austria: anti-Immigrant #Hofer (L) vs Greens' #Bellen. Could be populist breakthru. pic.twitter.com/AeaDBOl3eC
— Daniel Pipes (
DanielPipes) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanielPipes/status/734083178072281093">May 21, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <b></b>Hofer is up against the former Green party member, now running as an independent Alexander Van der Bellen. <b></b> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Presidential elections in Austria on Sunday: meet the two candidates<a href="https://t.co/0SbISF92yK">https://t.co/0SbISF92yK</a></p>— euronews (euronews) May 21, 2016
Immigration has dominated the campaign with 90,000 people claiming asylum in Austria last year. > Beautiful #Austria on the verge of a polarizing presidential election #farright #Greens pic.twitter.com/roNlzeZVdF
— Bethany Bell (@BethanyBellBB) May 21, 2016
The Freedom Party has campaigned on an anti-immigration ticket.