Austrian favourite ‘will prove he’s no Nazi’
If Europe’s first far-Right president since World War II is chosen by voters in Austria tomorrow, he will prove that he is ‘‘a far cry from a Nazi’’, one of his closest political friends says.
Norbert Hofer, 45, the Freedom Party (FPO) candidate, has been narrowly ahead in most opinion polls against his Green Party rival Alexander Van der Bellen, 72, after an annulled vote in May and a postponed rerun in October.
The 11-month election process has descended into increasingly vehement attacks, and has spawned a new contender for longest word in the German language – Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung (the delayed repeat of the presidential election rerun).
A victory for Hofer would be seen as continuing the continent’s lurch to the nationalist Right and a further blow to the European Union, with the FPO threatening its own membership referendum.
Nearly 200 kilometres west of the capital, Vienna, in the ‘‘blue city’’ of Wels – so called because it is the largest metropolitan area under FPO control – anger over immigration has fuelled support for the party, which was founded in the 1950s by former Nazis.
The office of president does not carry much direct power, but opponents are worried that Hofer could use it to precipitate a general election and propel his party to government, perhaps in coalition with the conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP), just as they are in Wels.
Andreas Rabl, 44, the mayor of Wels, who came to power last year on a surge of support during Europe’s migration crisis, said the country needed to refocus on ‘‘Austrian values’’, like his city.
He has begun intensive German language training for schoolchildren, half of whom he said could not understand the teacher when they started school, and has required all state-funded nurseries and schools to celebrate Christian festivals and eat traditional food.
Rabl has also blocked a planned new refugee centre, arguing that the town has enough foreigners, with 24 per cent of its citizens coming from outside Austria.
‘‘There is this constant message that the FPO is a Nazi party, the new fascism and dictatorial,’’ Wels, a long-standing friend of Hofer, said yesterday. ‘‘The foreign media report about Right-wing radicalism and the far Right in Austria, I hear that all the time.
‘‘I ask myself, what are they talking There is this constant message that the FPO is a Nazi party, the new fascism and dictatorial. about? We have not killed anyone, we were in the government [from 2000 to 2005] and relinquished power voluntarily, there was no civil war and no other violent military clashes.
‘‘New fascism – I do not see it. Mr Hofer as president would have the opportunity to correct this view. We are a normal Right-wing party, correct, but we are a far cry from a Nazi party.’’
In the first round of the election, the mainstream parties were eliminated by an electorate fed up with the government coalition of centre-Left and centre-Right. In the runoff in May, Van der Bellen beat Hofer by just 30,863 out of 4.47 million votes. The FPO then won a court case to have the result overturned due to procedural irregularities.
Supporters of Van der Bellen in Wels claim that, like their mayor, Hofer is the smiling face of a divisive and xenophobic party and tones down his message when he is not among core supporters.
Meanwhile, Van der Bellen, a chainsmoking former leader of the Greens, is distrusted by conservative voters. Walter Teubl, a Green member of the Wels city authority, said: ‘‘The OVP always portrayed the Greens as an ultra-Left party. There were many lies about us – that we would legalise cannabis or ban car driving.’’ If ’yes’ wins, Italy will be the strongest country in Europe. Matteo Renzi