http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/24/anti-immigrant-candidate-projected-win-first-round-austria-election/83466760/A right-wing, anti-immigrant party candidate won the most votes Sunday in the first round of Austria's presidential election, reflecting the mood of a nation deeply divided over Europe's migrant crisis.
Preliminary final results show Norbert Hofer, of Austria's far-right Freedom Party, held about 35% of the vote, followed by independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, who with 20% of the vote was projected to finish second. Imgard Griss, another independent candidate, won about 18% of the vote, the Associated Press reported.
As the top two finishers, Hofer and Van der Bellen will face each other in a May 22 runoff. The runoff vote was automatically triggered because no candidate won more than half the vote.
The results are a stunning rebuke to Austria's center-left Social Democrats and the centrist People's Party that have dominated the country's politics for the last 70 years, but they failed to even make it to next month's runoff.
Those two parties have ruled Austria since 1945, in which one of the parties' members has always held the presidency. The Social Democrats' Rudolf Hundstorfer and the People Party's Andreas Khol each won about 11% of the vote, according to the AP.
The candidate of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) Norbert Hofer arrives at the polling station at the first round of Austrian President elections on April 24, 2016 in Pinkafeld, Austria. Austria's far-right won a clear victory in the first round of a presidential election on Sunday, projections showed, with candidates from the two governing parties failing to even make it into a May 22 runoff. (Photo: DIETER NAGL, AFP/Getty Images)Like much of Europe, Austrians are deeply divided over the refugee crisis impacting the continent as migrants have fled the war in Syria and elsewhere.
Last year Werner Faymann, the Social Democrat chancellor, backed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “open-door” refugee policy. But last month Faymann reversed his position and announced a tighter policy after 90,000 asylum seekers flooded into Austria.
Hofer, who has carried a Glock pistol with him while on the campaign trail, has argued that a rise in gun ownership in Austria is a natural reaction to the migrant crisis
Van der Bellen, the independent candidate who is the child of refugees who fled Estonia after the former Soviet Union's annexation, has opposed efforts to limit refugees.
The Austrian presidency is largely a ceremonial post, but the defeat of the country's establishment parties is, nonetheless, significant. The nation holds its next general election in 2018.
President Heinz Fischer, 77, cannot run again after serving the maximum of two terms in office.
