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People like Hofer filling the vacuum where old left used to be (Photo: Hofer's campaign)

Austria vote is wake-up call for EU left

In a nail-biting finale, Alexander van der Bellen on Monday (23 May) secured a tiny majority of 50.3 percent to prevent Norbert Hofer becoming the EU’s first far-right head of state.

It was the happy ending to a comeback-of-the-year campaign that Van der Bellen and his team pulled off in the last two weeks.

Norbert “the pinstriped-Nazi” Hofer, was unable to defend the 14-point lead that he had established in the first round o...

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The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s, not those of EUobserver

Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's Foreign Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

People like Hofer filling the vacuum where old left used to be (Photo: Hofer's campaign)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's Foreign Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

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