The Austrian Federal President Van der Bellen got well over 50 percent in the presidential election and thus achieved the required absolute majority. This eliminates a runoff.
The Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen was confirmed in office in the first round of the elections, according to the preliminary results. Although the count does not yet take into account the expected more than 800,000 postal votes, projections by the ORF assume that the incumbent will ultimately receive around 56 percent approval. The official result will not be announced until Monday.
In a video message posted on Twitter, Van der Bellen thanked everyone who voted and those who voted for him. “Now it is important to look ahead together and to devote ourselves to the important issues that lie ahead without delay.” The tasks are great – and it takes a solidarity to solve them,” says Van der Bellen.
FPÖ candidate at around 18 percent
Van der Bellen ran again as an independent candidate. Besides him, there were six other applicants, four of whom can be assigned to the right-wing camp. Van der Bellen has the express or tacit support of most of Austria’s major parties. The exception is the right-wing FPÖ, which had put forward its own candidate in Walter Rosenkranz. According to extrapolation, Rosencrantz reached about 18 percent.
The Federal President can be re-elected once in Austria. So far, all Federal Presidents who have run for a second term have been confirmed in office there. Of the nine million inhabitants of Austria, 6.4 million eligible voters were called to vote. Voter turnout was estimated at 65 percent.
