The Austrian Election

This article is being written in Austria. Yes, the SomeNews website reports live from the country that has just had an election. The journey here was fun, and you can read about that here.

With Brexit and then Trump it looked like Austria would be the next place with a right-leaning win.

Well, on a national level. I know there have been other elections where a right-wing candidate has done well. At my local bridge club Ethel is now in charge and you do not want to get her talking about migration.

And Scarlett Moffatt was voted Queen of the Jungle in the TV show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and she might hate the Dutch, we have no evidence to prove or disprove that claim at this moment.

However, Austria rejected far-right presidential candidate Norbert Hofer. For everyone who complains at just how bad 2016 has been we can now say to them, “What? You wanted the far-right in that part of Europe? That ends well.”

It wasn’t simply a matter of far-right vs centre-left, which is kind of the situation in America. It was far-right vs quite-far-left Alexander Van der Bellen.

What does it mean? Well, possibly is means the right isn’t sweeping Europe but with Norbert Hofer getting 46% of the vote it might not mean that. 46% is a high proportion. In America it’s just about enough to win.

Only time will tell. There’s been another important election in Italy which I might report on when I arrive in the next country I’m going to. Not Italy. Hungary. But come on, the SomeNews site isn’t made of money and Hungary is close enough.

All that’s left to do is to say congratulations to Alexander Van der Bellen and his supporters. Not only do they have an election victory, they also got a bulk-buy discount on glasses.