Populism is the theme for 2016, and not just in America. In Austria’s presidential election on Sunday, polarizing candidates — similar to Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders — dominated the first round of voting and shut out the establishment parties for the first time in history.
BBC reported that Norbert Hofer of the anti-European, anti-immigration Freedom Party won the most votes with 36 percent. Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent aligned with the left-wing, pro-environmental Green Party, won 20 percent of the vote.
Austria’s presidential election was a six-way race in which the two major parties and two high-profile independents lost out to the two populist candidates.
Hofer was able to capitalize heavily on the migrant crisis plaguing Europe, and while he didn’t call for a border wall, his message of “putting Austria first” would definitely resonate with Trump supporters.
If he wins, it will be the first time that a right-wing outsider candidate becomes the president of any major Western country.
Austria isn’t the only country with a presidential election resembling the United States. Last year in Guatemala, right-wing TV personality Jimmy Morales defeated liberal former first lady Sandra Torres.
