Will Austria leave the EU? What will happen if Norbert Hofer is elected?
NOBERT Hofer could become the EU’s first far-right head of state this weekend. But what would his victory mean for the EU?
If Mr Hofer is elected as Austria’s next President on Sunday, it will signal an unprecedented shift toward right-wing extremism in Europe.
His anti-Islam party, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), is slick operation that peddles aggressive populist nationalism and inflammatory, often racist, rhetoric.
Related articles
Mr Hofer narrowly lost to his Greens-backed rival Alexander Van der Bellen in Austria’s knife-edge presidential election in May.
But the election result was later annulled due to sloppy vote counting and Mr Hofer is now seen as the favourite to win the re-run on Sunday.
Will Austria leave the EU?
Piotr Buras, the Warsaw office for the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Mr Hofer is deeply Eurosceptic but he is also a pragmatist.
Mr Buras said: “What we should be concerned about is not if Austria will quit the EU or not. It will not happen.
“Austrians are not in favour of that, Hofer is not in favour of that. He is playing with this kind of Eurosceptic argument.”
The European politics expert said that Mr Hofer has backtracked on his suggestion that he might hold a referendum over Austria’s EU membership.
He said: “I don’t believe Hofer will want to do it because it will not benefit him or his party. This is not what is at stake.”
Norbert Hofer could be Austria's first far right head of state
What would Norbert Hofer mean for the EU?
Instead of leaving the EU, Mr Hofer could cause chaos within the bloc because his far-right ideology threatens its liberal democratic values.
Mr Buras said: “Austria under Hofer will play a much less constructive role in the EU. It could become a very problematic member state.”
The election of Mr Hofer could pave the way for a snap federal election and the victory of the FPO’s leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who is likely to stand as Chancellor.
Mr Buras said the rise of the FPO would create a worrying new European “political reality in terms of what is acceptable in the public discourse”.
He said this would signal a “very disturbing movement” towards the right which would be devastating blow for liberal democracy and society in Europe.
The anti-immigrant FPO has seized on the migrant crisis in Europe to win popularity by promising to close the borders to refugees.
