Austria decisively rejected far-right candidate Norbert Hofer in their Presidential election on Sunday, voting in favour of independent Alexander Van der Bellen.
Norbert Hofer conceded defeat to Mr Van der Bellen just half an hour after the first exit polls. In a post on Facebook, he wrote that he was “infinitely sad”, before saying: “I congratulate Alexander Van der Bellen for his success and ask all Austrians to pull together and work together.”
He then confirmed that he would run again in six years’ time.
Mr Van der Bellen, the former leader of the Green party, stood as a pro-European, federalist candidate. After the result was announced, he said: “red-white-red signal of hope and change, a red-white-red signal today goes from Austria to all the capitals of the European Union.”
“Finally, you know, I will try to be an open-minded, a liberal-minded and first of all a pro-European federal president of the Republic of Austria.”
Sunday’s vote followed the first in May, which Mr Van der Bellen narrowly won, but was found to be illegitimate after voting irregularities. In the first vote Mr Van der Bellen won by just 30,863 votes, with most commentators expecting a similar result this time around. However Mr Van Der Bellen gained a further 3 percent of the votes in Sunday’s election, with many attributing this to an increase in pro-EU sentiment in the wake of Britain’s Brexit negotiations.
His election comes on the same day as Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s resignation, in the wake of a constitutional referendum that saw nearly 60 percent of Italians vote against his government’s reforms.