Austrians voted Sunday in a presidential runoff which could usher in the European Union’s first far-right leader, fueled by anti-immigrant anger over Europe’s worst post-war refugee crisis.
A huge influx of asylum-seekers, growing unemployment and frozen reforms have left Austria deeply polarised and driven angry voters away from the centrist ruling coalition toward fringe groups.
But Norbert Hofer of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe) denied that he posed a risk as president.
– ‘Not a dangerous person’ –
“I am not a dangerous person,” the FPOe star told reporters as he voted in his home town of Pinkafeld, in the eastern Burgenland state.
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