Austria's Constitutional Court has put the cat among the pigeons by upholding a challenge to its recent presidential elections, which the far-right Freedom Party only narrowly lost. The decision effectively annuls the election results and triggers a full re-run of the election.
The objectionable ultra-rightist Norbert Ofer, leader of the far-right, anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic Freedom Party, caused a deal of consternation in Europe when he narrowly lost the 22nd May election by just 30,863 votes (less than 1%) to staunchly pro-EU leftist independent Alexander Van der Bellen. The Freedom Party's challenge alleged that postal votes had been illegally and improperly handled (opened earlier than permitted under election rules, and, in some cases, counted by people unauthorized to do so), and the court has ruled that the improprieties were important enough to merit a complete re-run of the election.
The court decision represents a moral victory of sorts for the European far-right. Bt whether a new election, in a subtly changed post-Brexit world, will favour the right or the left remains to be seen. Some commentators think that the recent UK vote to leave the EU could boost populist and nationalist sentiment in Austria, while others believe that the political and economic turbulence Brexit has created in Britain and around the world may make people more cautious about Eurosceptic parties.
Myself, I don't really understand why a whole new election is needed, especially in such a changed (and charged) political climate. There is no indication or even suggestion that the count had been manipulated in any way, merely that some rules were not followed. Could the postal votes not just be re-counted?
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