The outgoing president of Austria, the environmentalist Alexander Van der Bellen, considered a symbol of stability to face inflation, the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, was re-elected this Sunday according to the first projections published at the close of the polls.
At 78 years old and supported by a wide spectrum of the political class, Alexander Van der Bellen would win in the first round with 54.6% of the vote, well ahead of the other six candidates, according to these first projections published shortly after the 5:00 p.m. (15:00 GMT). The official result should not be known until Monday, but the outgoing president already tweeted “thank you”.
“It would be good to see things clear today, it would be good for Austria. It would allow us to fully concentrate (…) on the multitude of crises we are facing in Europe,” declared the head of state and big favorite in this presidential election, after voting in Vienna at the end of the morning.
The FPÖ dreamed of a rematch
In the alpine country of 9 million inhabitants, 6.4 million voters – including the Austrian-American Arnold Schwarzenegger, a strong supporter of the president – were called to the polls.
The far-right party FPÖ, which came close to beating Alexander Van der Bellen in 2016 and dreamed of revenge this year, stepped up to the ballot with a little-known candidate, 60-year-old Walter Rosenkranz, who got 18th. .9% of the votes on Sunday. according to the first projections. He was only credited with 15% of the votes before the vote, contrary to the recent elections in Sweden and Italy.
Corruption cases have caused Austria’s notorious far-right to lose ground. Six years ago, she was the first in Europe to come close to victory in a presidential election. Founded by former Nazis, the FPÖ ultimately lost with more than 46% of the vote, the epilogue of a checkered vote that had kept Western partners in Brussels and Austria on edge.
If the party had then entered the government by forming a coalition with the conservatives of the young Sebastian Kurz, it had to leave power in 2019 after an incredible scandal and since then it has not recovered its past glory. Faced with these turbulences and the succession of chancellors, Alexander Van der Bellen, whose function is essentially ceremonial, guaranteed the continuity of the state.
“The only one who can prevent chaos”
Thus he was able to present himself as “the only one who can avoid chaos,” according to political scientist Thomas Hofer, interviewed by AFP. This Europeanism also passes for “integrity” according to Julia Partheymüller, of the University of Vienna, which is “highly appreciated” compared to the “multiple crises that many European countries are going through.” She led a sober campaign, advocating for “clarity” and “competence” to “steer through turbulence as calmly as possible.”
His atypical profile, however, by no means guaranteed him such a political destiny. Austere, a little rigid even, an agnostic married twice on Catholic soil, the former head of the Greens and dean of the Faculty of Economics in Vienna has managed to forget his strong anchorage in the left to unite people.
Ironically, a heavy smoker with an eternal three-day beard, he is now happy to be photographed in loden, a traditional alpine jacket, at the foot of the glaciers to convince of his patriotism.
For being a very rare environmentalist at the head of a democracy, he is also the son of refugees and has inherited an exotic Batavian surname: his Protestant family emigrated from the Netherlands to Russia in the 18th century. His father, an aristocrat, and his Estonian mother joined Vienna during World War II before moving to Tyrol, fleeing the arrival of the Red Army.
Source: BFM TV
