Since facing a stunning defeat in Britain’s Brexit vote on June 23, Eurosocialists and globalists have had their eyes nervously fixed on Austria. On October 2, Norbert Hofer (shown, right), Austria’s presidential candidate for the Freedom Party (FPO) will be going head-to-head once more against the socialist Green Party standard bearer Alexander Van der Bellen (shown, left).

As we reported on May 25, (Was the Austrian Election “Stolen”?) there were massive “election irregularities” in Austria’s presidential election on Sunday, May 22. The provisional count on May 22 gave Hofer 51.9 percent of the vote. However, the following day, Monday, May 23, after a count of the postal absentee ballots, Professor van der Bellen was declared the winner by a razor-thin margin of less than one percent (31,000 votes). Charges of vote fraud and ballot stuffing immediately surfaced. This is not unusual in tight electoral races, but it soon became apparent there was merit to these accusations. Among the “irregularities” admitted to by election officials were that thousands of absentee ballots were illegally opened and counted without the presence of witnesses, as required by law.

The Freedom Party challenged the election results. On July 1, Austria’s Constitutional Court delivered a verdict in Hofer’s favor, ordering a rerun of the country’s presidential election. “The runoff presidential election must be completely repeated in all of Austria,” stated Gerhart Holzinger, the president of the Constitutional Court.

While it cited no instances of outright fraud, the court ruled that 77,926 of the 4.5 million votes cast were affected by improprieties in the counting process. This amounted to more than double the tight margin of victory and was sufficient, said the court, to annul the vote.

“It is completely clear to the Constitutional Court that laws regulating an election must be rigorously applied,” the court ruled, citing violations such as mail-in ballots being opened by people not authorized to do so. “This must rule out abuse and manipulations.”

The court ruling overturned plans for van der Bellen to be sworn in as president on July 8. Until the inauguration of the new president who is selected by voters in the October election, the current three presidents of Austria's National Council will collectively serve as Acting Presidents of Austria. Hofer is one of those presidents.

The differences between Hofer and van der Bellen go far beyond their personal styles. Hofer, 45, an aeronautical engineer, is dapper, well-dressed, articulate, and charming, while van der Bellen, 72, an economics professor, is scruffy, haughty, and elitist. By effectively delivering the FPO message of opposition to EU-mandated migration/refugee policies, Hofer has won over millions of Austrians who can plainly see the disastrous consequences of the EU’s open borders. In contrast to van der Bellen, who is an ardent euro-federalist who supports total absorption of the nation state by the Brussels-run EU bureaucracy, Hofer has campaigned on a slogan of “putting Austria first.” As one might expect, this has earned Hofer and the FPO the media labels of “xenophobic,” “racist,” “anti-immigrant,” “neo-Nazi,” “far-right extremist,” etc., while the socialist, atheist van der Bellen, who supports the militant LBGTQ agenda, radical United Nations programs, militant environmental and global-warming policies, and unlimited migration, is rewarded by the same media organizations with the “moderate” and “independent” labels.

However, as the stunning results of the Brexit vote proved, even in the face of the massive “Project Fear” propaganda drive of the Cameron government, Wall Street, and the globalist establishment media, the common people are capable of recognizing the truth and embracing it. Neither Hofer nor the FPO has called for an Austrian exit from the EU, but they do insist on an Austrian referendum on the issue of Turkey being admitted to the European Union. And if Turkey were to be admitted over their objection, or if the EU attempts to enforce its mandatory refugee quotas, it is likely the FPO would quickly launch its own British-style exit. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament President Martin Schulz have already riled many Austrian voters with their interference in the May elections and their warnings to Austrians against voting the Hofer/FPO ticket.

The prospects for a Hofer/FPO victory in October have been growing stronger almost daily. Unfortunately, Hofer’s political good fortune is coming as a result of the almost daily confirmation of the dangers he warned about from unchecked, unvetted, unrestricted migration. The ongoing series of horrendous terrorist attacks throughout Europe (Paris, Brussels, London, Nice, Istanbul, etc.) and the spiraling incidence of violent protests, riots, crime, mass rapes, etc., by (mostly) Muslim migrants are making a strong case for Austrians to support Norbert Hofer, and to exit the EU — while they still can.

Photo: AP Images

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