Austrian Elections & Politics 2.0 (Presidential runoff re-vote: 4 Dec. 2016)

[DL]

news.at made street interviews in Vienna about who people are voting for:

http://www.news.at/a/strassenumfrage-bp-wahl-hofer-van-der-bellen-6362580

One guy was asked: "What do you like about Hofer ?"

Answer: "His hatred of foreigners."

Austrians would like the world to think that Beethoven was Austrian and that Hitler was German (sic.)

[DL]

Has Hofer ever been asked his opinion of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and if so what does he say? Does he actually condemn Hitler and the Holocaust or does he use coded weasel words to let Nazi sympathizers know that he is one of them?

[DL]

What is the theory or explanation for why a VdeB does so much better with postal ballots?

[DL]

The Europe Elects Twitter feed says that sources in the Austrain Ministry of the interior say Van Xer Bellen has won

[DL]

I have seen other reports that Van Xer Bellen won by about 20,000...the last four areas to declare their postal votes were largely his strongholds such as the City of Salzburg and the City of Innsbruck

[DL]

Hofer concedes.

On his Facebook page.

Ding dong the witch is dead!

[DL]

In the end Van der Bellen won by 30,000 votes!

http://wahl16.bmi.gv.at/

[DL]

Am I right that probably the only way the FPO could be in government would be if they took an absolute majority in the next national elections - since no other party will work with them?...and the chances of that happening are just about nil.

[DL]

Even though Hofer lost, it is historical event that a anti-immigration candidate came that close to victory in a Western European Nation. Unfortunately Vander Bellen can do a lot of damage in the next 6 years. Austria is crucial because it is the gateway to Northern Europe, where most migrants are headed. Austria closed the Brenner Pass but once Vander Bellen is in office he will keep it open and the tide of migrants will continue until Austria is ruined by the time there is anther election. Last year Austria  took in 80 thousand migrants out of a population of 8 million. That would be the equivalent of the United States taking in 3-4 million migrants.

Do you realize that the President of Austria is a ceremonial position? Van der bellen does not have the power to do any of those things even if he  any d to...though I wish he could!

[DL]

Some of my Hofer-voting co-workers were lamenting their loss the whole day, which was really annoying.

How everything was rigged and faked and how VdB is such an unlikeable asshole etc. etc.

The world's smallest violin is playing in sympathy....

[DL]

     That is a nice speech.  I like how he calls his victory a tie, acknowledging that basically half the country voted for Hofer.  So often politicians forget that while they've been elected, often giant percentages of people voted for someone else.

Agreed but i think you have to remember that this was not an election to choose a head of government. This was an election to choose a ceremonial President. It would be like Canada electing a Governor General or Great Britain electing a successor to Queen Elizabeth for a 6 year term. As I understand it, the role of the President in Austrian politics is to be non-partisan and rise above the fray and cut ribbons etc... so of course he will try to be all about reconciliation.

[DL]

But Carinthia is an FPO stronghold - so if those votes were theoreticaly disqualified wouldnt it only give Van der Bellen an even bigger margin?

[DL]

I will be interested to see a post-presidential election poll on how Austrians would vote in a nationalrat election - I'm curious if there is any Green bump and any deflation of the FPO vote

[DL]

I gather the poll didnt ask Austrians how they would vote now if the Presidential runoff between Ven der Bellen and Hofer was re-run?

[DL]

What will be the date of the re-vote?

What are the chances that the outcome will be any different (I.e. That Hofer wins?)

[DL]

If I were an Austrian constitutional lawyer right now, I would already be starting writing my appeal on the Dec 4th election for, you know, the fact that some people will apparently be voting in a runoff produced by a first round where they were not qualified to vote. It makes absolutely no sense.

Yes, but about 30,000 people who voted in the original vote have already died of natural causes and so their votes have gone to the big ballot box in the sky...that already makes it impossible to perfectly replicate the first runoff!

[DL]

Besides, old people who died and first-time voters both lean a bit towards VdB over Hofer. So, the inclusion of the new voters won't really impact the result.

Really, I thought Hofer's voted skewed very old and that therefore the old people who have died in the last six months would be mostly Hofer voters