The election of Alexander Van der Bellen as president of Austria puts a spanner in the works of the myth machine suggesting that the majority of the electorate across Europe are embracing the far right. For once, it was the progressive, pro-EU, pro-internationalist vote that confounded the polls. The assertion that the anti-immigration, gun-toting candidate Norbert Hofer would win, proved wrong. Indeed, the re-run of May’s neck-and-neck presidential contest gave Van der Bellen a larger margin over his rival than seven months ago. Austria has seen off a man who would have become Europe’s most rightwing elected leader since the second world war.

Van der Bellen is a former leader of the Green party in Austria who stood as an independent, believing the office of president is a service to the country rather than a service to a party. Despite not having his colours pinned to his chest, his political allegiance is clear. He ran on a ticket of unity above division; love not hate; and confidence rather than fear. He has pledged to work for a more equal society, where the divisions between rich and poor are narrowed. He also stood proudly and confidently as a global citizen within the family of Europe. He robustly rejects Öxit, the Austrian campaign to leave the EU, and celebrates the ability of Austria to mediate as a neutral country in international conflicts.

Austria defeated the far-right Norbert Hofer – finally, some hope for Europe | Julia Ebner Read more

Van der Bellen’s win makes it clear that Greens have learned to operate effectively within the mainstream political system. But we can do so untarnished by being associated with failed political elites who have ignored working people’s concerns. Neither are we afraid to name and fight fascism. We challenged unfair trade treaties before it was fashionable to do so and have always resisted privatisation and corporate power. Our ongoing successes rarely gain coverage but they make an important contribution for the common good.

As Greens, we don’t have friends in high places or media moguls at our beck and call. We trade in the politics of hope not fear. We have the courage to face the future in all its complexity and with all its challenges and trust in the wisdom and compassion of human beings to make it work for us all.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Greens have secured a human rights resolution on the persecuted Guarani-Kaiowá people of Brazil.’ A Guarani-Kaiowá girl, Sandriely, cries in front of her hut destroyed by a fire set by an unknown arsonist. Photograph: Lunae Parracho/Reuters

And with this outlook, Greens have won support for a wide range of measures in recent weeks. These include raising the VAT threshold for small and microbusinesses; eliminating the trade with the EU in conflict minerals that finance armed groups, and securing a human rights resolution on the persecuted Guarani-Kaiowá people of Brazil. Not that any of this is of course the stuff of populist posturing, which makes for headlines and fills column inches. Nonetheless these are small practical and incremental steps towards creating a fairer society.

The fact that the far right has shouted loudest and provided a simplistic narrative for working people feeling challenged by globalisation makes Van der Bellen’s victory even more remarkable and significant. We must celebrate the fact that so many of our fellow citizens now see themselves as citizens of the world. This does not, in Theresa May’s desperately crass phrase, mean that they are “citizens of nowhere”. It means that they acknowledge the need for human solidarity and compassion if we are to continue to lead peaceful and happy lives on this one fragile planet we share.

Just as in the Brexit vote, half of Austrians chose this openness to the world; an optimism about what humanity can achieve. That so many Europeans continue to welcome the cosmopolitan culture of our continent, against the background din of far-right rhetoric which feeds on people’s insecurity, is extraordinary. We should feel proud that the siren song of a narrow and self-serving nationalism has been rejected.