Former Greens leader wins presidency

Alexander van der Bellen, a former leader of the Green Party who is now independent, narrowly won the Austrian presidential election by 31,000 votes on 22 May.

For the first time since the Second World War, voters had to choose between candidates from two “fringe” parties, the far-right Freedom Party and the left-wing Green Party, as both the conservative and socialist candidates, whose parties form the present coalition Government, were knocked out in the first round of the presidential elections in April. The Freedom Party is anti-immigration while the Greens favour same-sex marriage and abortion up to the eighth month of pregnancy.  

In the run-up to the presidential election, the auxiliary Bishop of Salzburg, Andreas Laun, broke with tradition and called on Catholics to vote for the right-wing candidate, Norbert Hofer. The president of the bishops’ conference, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and the Archbishop of Salzburg, Franz Lackner, immediately distanced themselves from Laun’s call.

“The new president must try and unite the country,” Cardinal Schönborn said as soon as the result was announced. “The election campaign has not only polarised society but also the Church.”