Democracy News

Austrian Presidential Election Stirs Up Controversy
April 27, 2010
By: Randi Zung | Printer Friendly

According to the results of Austria’s April 25 presidential election, incumbent President Heinz Fischer won by receiving approximately 78 percent of the vote.  Barbara Rosenkranz of the Freedom Party took 15.5 percent and Rudolf Gehring of the Christian Party received approximately 6 percent.  Fischer, formerly with the Social Democrats and currently registered as an independent, was a frontrunner from the start and was expected to win the election, the Christian Science Monitor reported. 

Despite being an independent candidate, Fischer was largely endorsed by the People's Party, the Social Democrats, and the Green Party, according to the Austrian Independent.  Fischer, who received high popularity ratings during his first term, ran largely unchallenged.  The Christian Science Monitor also reported that Rosenkranz was considered to be Fischer’s only serious challenger, but her campaign lost momentum after the media portrayed her as a Nazi sympathizer.  Following her bad press, in an interview with AP, Rosenkranz seemed to retract her earlier pro-Nazi stance and stated: “Of course I condemn the monstrous atrocities — I've never done anything else.”  Gehring’s campaign was equally jarring.  His platform was based on an anti-gay and anti-feminist stance.