Promoting policies comparable to those of Donald Trump, ultra nationalist leader Norbert Hofer looks likely to be the new president of Austria.

This weekend the country heads to the polls for the final round of their presidential elections.

In a result last month which stunned many, the 45-year-old smooth-talking candidate for Austria's far right Freedom Party (FPO), received an unprecedented 35 per cent of the votes in the first round.

Independent Austrian presidential candidate Alexander Van Der Bellen is backed by the Greens. ( Supplied: Kim Traill )

It was the strongest showing for the FPO, the ideological descendants of the Nazi party, since 1955 when Austria regained independence after World War II.

The 72-year-old independent backed by the Greens, Alexander Van Der Bellen, came in second with 21 per cent and will now battle it out against Mr Hofer for the largely ceremonial role of president.

The candidates for the two centrist parties, which have ruled in coalition since 1955, the Austrian People's Party (OVP) and the Social Democrats (SPO), each received historical lows of just over 11 per cent in last month's ballot.

That result has largely been blamed on their parties' handling of the refugee crisis.

Austria accepted 95,000 asylum seekers in 2015, but initial euphoria gave way to widespread public fears about how the country of 8.5 million could support and integrate them.

In the wake of the SPO's disastrous result, Werner Faymann, the SPO Chancellor, resigned.

Hofer 'a wolf in sheep's clothing': Young European Greens

Mr Hofer's promise to "put Austria first" has had great appeal to an increasingly anxious electorate.

"People are voting with their feelings. They are afraid," Axel Gotsmy, a lawyer and refugee activist, said.

A supporter of Mr Van Der Bellen, he added: "They have the impression that everything is out of control and they don't know what will happen. They are worried about their children, about their pensions and the refugee crisis is increasing their fears."

"They want simple answers and the Freedom Party has simple answers."

A campaign poster for Mr Hofer is defaced and overlaid by a picture of him Hofer wearing a cornflower in his lapel - a symbol used by the Nazis. ( Supplied: Kim Traill )

Mr Hofer's political responses, all delivered with a winning smile and echoing Republican US presidential hopeful Mr Trump, include building a fence along the southern border to keep out refugees, deporting those who have had their asylum claim rejected and "stopping the invasion of Muslims".

With a charming demeanour, Mr Hofer cuts a sharp contrast to his colleague, FPO chairman Heinz-Christian Strache, who is known for his notoriously harsh anti-foreigner rhetoric.

But critics see no difference between the two.

"Hofer is a wolf in sheep's clothing," Cengiz Kulacs, the leader of the Young European Greens, said.

"He appears very modest and is very smart in front of the public, but he is rationalising the same far right-wing German nationalist discourse as Strache."

As recently as 2013, Mr Hofer attended party gatherings wearing a blue cornflower on his lapel, a symbol used by the Nazis.

The former aeronautical engineer is also a self-confessed gun lover and Margaret Thatcher fan.

Vienna's Brunnenmarkt district is home to a large migrant population. ( Supplied: Kim Traill )

Mr Gotsmy has been distributing how-to-vote flyers for Mr Van Der Bellen in Vienna's tenth district, an area of low-income workers who traditionally back the Freedom Party.

"My fear is that Hofer will win and that the situation will end up like in Poland or in Hungary, which have autocratic, repressive systems," he said.

Mr Van Der Bellen, himself the son of immigrants from the Soviet Union, is calling for unity and tolerance.

Mr Gotsmy, however, is afraid the tide of public opinion is against the former professor.

"The many stories about crime recently have given people the impression we can't deal with the refugees," he said.

'I am not a Nazi, but we should look after the people who are here'

A month ago, three teenage Afghan asylum seekers were charged with the rape of a 21-year-old woman in a Vienna train station.

And early this month, a 54-year-old woman was murdered in a Vienna street market by a Kenyan refugee with a long criminal record.

"We don't want criminal young men here who rape women," Herman Mitterer, a teacher from Tirol, who plans to vote for Mr Hofer, said.

Mohamad Alzoiun (centre) arrived in Austria from Syria with his family seven months ago. ( Supplied: Kim Traill )

"Police report that the level of criminality is very high and it's really dangerous, especially for women.

"It's not okay that someone like the African guy who killed the woman can stay in the country. He already had 18 previous convictions. He should leave," he said.

"Many refugees can't find work because they are illiterate, so we have to pay for them and our social system will break down.

"We need to look after our own people too. I am sure I am not a Nazi, but we should look after the people who are here."

Mohamad Alzoiun fled with his wife and two sons, aged 6 and 7, from Hama in Syria last year.

Initially bound for Germany, he decided to stay in Austria.

Mr Alzoiun is not concerned about the possibility of finding himself in a country with a president who doesn't want him here.

"They have the right to vote for the party they want," he said.

"We left Syria because we had no democracy. So many refugees came here and I can understand how the people feel."