The far right triumphs in the first round of the presidential elections in Austria. Norbert Hofer, the candidate of the Freedom Party (Fpoe), a xenophobic and anti-migrant formation, won with 36,7%, according to data from the first screening. Green Alexander van der Bellen is second with 19,7% and he should be the challenger Hofer will face in the ballot on May 22nd. Independent candidate Irmgard Griss is in third place at 18,8%.
Together with the advance of the populist right, the most relevant political data is the defeat of the two great traditional parties, social democrats and popular, protagonists of the grand coalition that has governed Austria since 2007. After having clashed in all the presidential ballots since 1945 onwards, the two historic formations gave in with a crash and in unison, failing to bring their respective candidates beyond 11%.
In Austria the President of the Republic has few effective powers and mainly plays a representative role (he is the head of the armed forces, appoints the chancellor and, in some circumstances, can dissolve Parliament), but the general elections will be held in 2018 and yesterday the Fpoe achieved its best result ever at national level.
It is on the issue of migrants that the Freedom Party has built most of its consensus. Hofer defined the agreement on migrants between the EU and Turkey as "fatal" and made it known that his first objective is to prevent Austria from becoming a "land of immigration". Not only that: to make it clear that he is not joking, he has assured that – if he is elected – he will challenge the government unless more restrictive measures are taken on migrants.
A threat that worries Italy, given that Vienna has already started building a 250-metre barrier at the Brenner border, where new clashes broke out yesterday between the Austrian police and Italian "no border" protesters. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz explained that Austria's priority is to protect the EU's external borders, underlining that Vienna "will be forced to introduce controls at the Brenner Pass" if it fails to reduce the number of irregular migrants from the Mediterranean route .
