Free Republic

Vienna (AFP) - Austria's political "whizz-kid" Sebastian Kurz was on course Sunday to become Europe's youngest leader, potentially in coalition with the far-right, after his conservative party looked to have triumphed in elections. Kurz's People's Party (OeVP) won 30.5 percent of the vote, followed by Chancellor Christian Kern's Social Democrats (SPOe) on 27.1 percent and the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) on 25.9 percent, projections on public TV showed. Kurz, 31, nicknamed "wunderwuzzi", ("whizzkid") took over the OeVP in May and managed to attract supporters in droves by depicting himself as a breath of fresh air, talking tough on immigration and...

SEBASTIAN Kurz is expected to clinch victory in the Austria elections, according to the latest projections, which could see him form an alliance with the far right in a crushing blow for the European Union.

As the days go by, the results of the Austrian presidential election get more suspicious. According to the official results, the far-left candidate Alexander Van der Bellen defeated Norbert Hofer from the Freedom Party of Austria by just 31,000 votes, 50.35% to 49.65%. The lights were already blinking red on the day the results were being released. Writing for Breitbart soon thereafter, James Delingpole didn't mince words and called the election a sham: We were continually assured by the left-liberal media how awful it would be if the (supposed) "far-right" candidate Norbert Hofer won. But actually the victory of Green...

Five voting districts are being investigated in Austria over postal vote irregularities in the close-run presidential election, the interior minister has announced. Allegations of fraud arose from the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) of defeated candidate Norbert Hofer, after the Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen just scrapped ahead with 31,000 votes when the postal ballot was counted. The Villach branch of FPÖ lodged a complaint with the country’s corruption prosecutor over the Carinthia council counting votes on Sunday and not Monday like in the rest of the country. Speaking on Austrian TV, Freedom Party leader Heinz Christan Strache said, “The...

They called it an “election gimmick” and a “campaign gag”, but the new president-elect of Austria once presided over his party’s campaign that declared: “Anyone who loves Austria must be shit”. Alexander Van der Bellen – who appears to have defeated the Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer by around just 30,000 of nearly five million votes – has a track record of opposing the nation state as a concept, and his own as a reality. In 2007, while he was leader of the Austrian Greens, the party published a picture of a dog with the Austrian flag in its mouth. The...

<p>Vienna (AFP) - Austrian far-right hopes of winning a presidential runoff remained on hold Sunday as the candidates were neck-and-neck in a battle closely watched by the EU, which is struggling to contain a surge of anti-immigrant parties.</p> <p>A win would see Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party (FPOe) become the European Union's first far-right head of state.</p>

According to the interior ministry's final count of votes cast at polling-stations (in German), Mr Hofer took 51.9% to 48.1% for Mr Van der Bellen. But ORF public TV's projection (in German), which is usually considered reliable, has both men on 50%.

Austrians have headed to the polle to elect a new president in run-of elections. Early results by one polling institute gave far-right candidate Norbert Hofer a marginal lead at almost 51 percent. Norbert Hofer was projected to become Austria's first far-right president with 50.9 per cent of the votes, according to pollsters of the ARGE Wahlen group say. His lead over Green Party rival Alexander van der Bellen remains too narrow to call a definite winner. Former Green party chief van der Bellen was projected to gain 49.1 per cent of the ballots. ARGE said they were fairly certain that...