Far right wins 1st presidential round in Austria

[Melech 9,900]

I

"Austrian far-right party's triumph in presidential poll could spell turmoil

Austria is braced for political turmoil with fears that the landslide victory for a rightwing populist and gun-carrying candidate in Sunday’s first-round presidential vote could trigger snap elections.

Norbert Hofer, of the rightwing Freedom party (FPÖ), defied pollsters’ predictions to beat the Green party’s Alexander Van der Bellen into second place, gaining 36% of the vote. The two candidates will go head to head in a run-off ballot on 22 May.

While the presidential post is mainly a ceremonial role, Hofer has threatened to make use of a right to dissolve parliament before the 2018 elections, warning other candidates in a TV debate that “you will be surprised by what can be done [by a president]”.

Hofer, who claims to protect himself in the “uncertain times” of the refugee crisis by carrying a Glock gun, scored overwhelming victories in all of Austria’s states apart from Vienna. In Styria, Burgenland and Carinthia – border states most affected by the refugee trail from the Mediterranean to central Europe – Hofer managed to gain 40% or more.

Some constitutional experts question whether Austria’s president would be able to dissolve parliament without the orders of the government, though since the presidential role has previously only ever been filled by politicians from the two main centrist parties, the situation is without precedent.

On Sunday night, while describing the result as a “rendezvous with history”, Hofer made clear that he regarded the result as an “intermediary step” on the way to a wider challenge to Austria’s political system. 

The FPÖ is also leading polls for the parliamentary elections, with about 30% of the vote.

Should the FPÖ manage to return to government, it would ring alarm bells across the continent, with Austria joining a growing bloc of countries led by authoritarian and Eurosceptic governments , which includes Hungary and Poland. Hofer has signalled he would refuse to sign the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement with the US even if it was passed by his government.

Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, described the Freedom party’s rise as “deeply troubling”. “That a country at the heart of Europe can show such support to the far right barely 70 years on from the Holocaust shows that our collective memories are failing,” he said."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/25/austrian-far-right-partys-triumph-presidential-poll-turmoil-norbert-hofer

doesnt Austria remember last time when a an facist Austrian  leader took power 

[faux 2,190]

WW3 teas

[OmgSum1Actually 3,041]

What the hell is going on? 

Awful

[venusfly 17,885]

Youd think they'd know better after Tony Abbott lol

 

edit: oh AUSTRIA. mess

[KURUSHITOVSKA 20,451]

That's what they get when things like refugees happen. They won't help refugees and even vote the far right... Europe is turning into a mess again. 

[Melech 9,900]

2 minutes ago, KURUSHITOVSKA said:

That's what they get when things like refugees happen. They won't help them and even vote the far right... Europe is turning into a mess again. 

Refugees don't vote lol 

[KURUSHITOVSKA 20,451]

3 minutes ago, Simon said:

Refugees don't vote lol 

I know -_- but Austrians voted far right to avoid the refugees

[Melech 9,900]

58 minutes ago, KURUSHITOVSKA said:

I know -_- but Austrians voted far right to avoid the refugees

Oh I misunderstood. So yeah sadly they did 

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

The Trump Effect

[Guest]

im so ashamed of my home country

[Luc 4,776]

I am confident a fascist is unable to get more than 40% of the votes in west-Europe (with that I mean all countries west of the cold war border). I think either the amount of people showing up will be very low or the Greens winning by a few percentage points. I wonder if conservatives are prepared to vote for a Green politician, but they would have to to secure progress in the EU and Austria itself.