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| Austria’s Highest Court Orders Repeat of Presidential Runoff | Austria’s Highest Court Orders Repeat of Presidential Runoff |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| BERLIN — The political turmoil in Europe spread on Friday when Austria’s highest court ordered a repeat of a presidential runoff election that a far-right candidate, Norbert Hofer, narrowly lost in May. | BERLIN — The political turmoil in Europe spread on Friday when Austria’s highest court ordered a repeat of a presidential runoff election that a far-right candidate, Norbert Hofer, narrowly lost in May. |
| Mr. Hofer’s Freedom Party claimed gross irregularities in the absentee ballot count that followed voting on May 22. Mr. Hofer was leading after polls closed that day, but final results after a count of about 700,000 postal ballots put Alexander Van der Bellen, 72, a former leader of the Green Party, ahead by roughly 31,000 votes. | Mr. Hofer’s Freedom Party claimed gross irregularities in the absentee ballot count that followed voting on May 22. Mr. Hofer was leading after polls closed that day, but final results after a count of about 700,000 postal ballots put Alexander Van der Bellen, 72, a former leader of the Green Party, ahead by roughly 31,000 votes. |
| If he wins, Mr. Hofer, 45, would be the first far-right politician elected head of state in Europe since World War II. | |
| The mandate of the incumbent president, Heinz Fischer, expires this month. In the interim, the Constitution provides for leadership by a group of three politicians from different political parties, one of whom is Mr. Hofer. | The mandate of the incumbent president, Heinz Fischer, expires this month. In the interim, the Constitution provides for leadership by a group of three politicians from different political parties, one of whom is Mr. Hofer. |
| It was the first time that a total rerunning of an election had been ordered in post-1945 Austria. The runoff will most likely be held in September or October. | It was the first time that a total rerunning of an election had been ordered in post-1945 Austria. The runoff will most likely be held in September or October. |
| The presidential race in Austria had split the country, and emotions are now likely to run high once more. | The presidential race in Austria had split the country, and emotions are now likely to run high once more. |
| In announcing the verdict of the Constitutional Court, its chairman, Gerhart Holzinger, said the court was guided solely by its mission to ensure the rule of law and democracy. | In announcing the verdict of the Constitutional Court, its chairman, Gerhart Holzinger, said the court was guided solely by its mission to ensure the rule of law and democracy. |
| “The challenge is upheld,” he said. “The runoff must be repeated in all of Austria.” | “The challenge is upheld,” he said. “The runoff must be repeated in all of Austria.” |
| The 14 judges on the court heard testimony from about 90 witnesses. Most described procedural mistakes, like starting the counting of postal ballots on the evening of May 22, instead of waiting until the next morning, as the election law stipulates. In other cases, witnesses testified that absentee ballots had begun to be counted before all election officials were present. | |
| Outside of big cities like Vienna and Graz — which voted for Mr. Van der Bellen — Austria, a country of about 8.4 million, is largely rural and mountainous, dotted with small electoral wards that voted heavily for Mr. Hofer. | |
| On Facebook, the Freedom Party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, who had filed a 150-page complaint with the Constitutional Court about irregularities in 94 of 117 electoral districts, exulted about the court’s ruling. | |
| Along with promising to hold Austria’s government more accountable, Mr. Hofer and his party campaigned heavily on the migrant issue. Most of the more than one million migrants who reached Germany last year did so on land routes that took them through Austria. More than 90,000 migrants decided to apply for asylum in Austria — a similar proportion, compared with the total population, as in Germany. | |
| Unlike younger far-right movements like the Alternative for Germany, the Freedom Party has existed since the 1950s, when it was founded by former Nazis and nationalists. The party has exerted influence in national politics in Austria since the late 1980s, when Jörg Haider, a telegenic politician with a populist touch, took over the leadership. Mr. Haider was killed in a car crash in 2008. | |
| Backed by the tabloid news media, which has long chronicled crimes and misdeeds they attribute to foreigners in Austria, the Freedom Party has for decades questioned the need for immigration. | |
| Mr. Strache, the party chairman, failed in a bid in the fall to become mayor of Vienna, traditionally a bastion of the left. But growing populism across Europe, and the seeming staleness of Austria’s mainstream parties, helped Mr. Hofer’s bid for the presidency. | |
| The do-over election in Austria will take place in a Europe coping with Britain’s stunning referendum on June 23 to leave the European Union. Both mainstream political parties, the governing Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party, have been deeply divided since the vote, and it is unclear who will succeed Prime Minister David Cameron, who has announced he will step down by October. | |
| The Austrian presidency has traditionally been seen as a largely ceremonial post. But Mr. Hofer ran on a platform of making it more active, saying he would measure whether the mainstream parties of center-right and center-left were tackling the issues most important to the country. | The Austrian presidency has traditionally been seen as a largely ceremonial post. But Mr. Hofer ran on a platform of making it more active, saying he would measure whether the mainstream parties of center-right and center-left were tackling the issues most important to the country. |
| Mr. Hofer was the front-runner in the first round of the presidential election, on April 24, and the two mainstream parties failed by a large margin to get their candidates through to the May 22 runoff. Chancellor Werner Faymann, a Social Democrat, resigned as a result, and Christian Kern, a reform-minded Social Democrat, took over as head of government. | Mr. Hofer was the front-runner in the first round of the presidential election, on April 24, and the two mainstream parties failed by a large margin to get their candidates through to the May 22 runoff. Chancellor Werner Faymann, a Social Democrat, resigned as a result, and Christian Kern, a reform-minded Social Democrat, took over as head of government. |
| The last time the world gave so much attention to the election of an Austrian president was in 1986, when the country defied international fears and elected Kurt Waldheim, a former United Nations secretary general, as president, despite revelations that he had served in the Wehrmacht close to the site of Nazi atrocities in the Balkans. | The last time the world gave so much attention to the election of an Austrian president was in 1986, when the country defied international fears and elected Kurt Waldheim, a former United Nations secretary general, as president, despite revelations that he had served in the Wehrmacht close to the site of Nazi atrocities in the Balkans. |