Austrian presidential candidate Van der Bellen holds final rally ahead of Sunday's vote

Record ID: 75185

  • Title: Austrian presidential candidate Van der Bellen holds final rally ahead of Sunday's vote
  • Date: 2nd December 2016
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF SUPPORTERS SINGING VAN DER BELLEN WITH AIDES ON STAGE SINGING VAN DER BELLEN ON STAGE SINGING WITH AUSTRIAN TRADITIONAL BAND
  • Embargoed: 17th December 2016 20:24
  • Keywords: Austria Green party president Alexander Van der Bellen Vienna election
  • Location: VIENNA, AUSTRIA
  • City: VIENNA, AUSTRIA
  • Country: Austria
  • Reuters ID: LVA0045B70QBR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Alexander Van der Bellen, a former leader of the Austrian Greens, held his final rally in Vienna on Friday (December 2) ahead of a presidential run-off vote on Sunday (December 4).
    Van der Bellen will be up against Norbert Hofer, a candidate of the far-right Freedom Party, who is vying to become the first freely elected far-right head of state in Europe since World War Two.
    Although he narrowly won a run-off against Hofer in May, the vote was annulled because of irregularities in the counting of postal ballots.
    Opinion polls since have regularly shown the race is too close to call.
    Hofer ran his campaign on a populist 'Austria-first' platform, which includes calls to stop immigration and rides a wave of dissatisfaction over the EU's inability to come up with joint solutions in dealing with the migrant crisis.
    In contrast, Van der Bellen is firmly pro-European, and based his campaign on centrist promises of being a "President of the middle", after voters had rejected candidates from the two main political parties which ruled the nation for decades.
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