The second round of voting on 22 May will be the first time since 1945 that neither the Socialists nor the Conservatives have a shot at gaining the presidency, and while the popularity of his left-leaning Green Party challenger didn’t raise many eyebrows, Hofer’s rapid rise to national prominence shocked some foreign observers.
They contend that the politician is a front man for the European far-right and question why the Austrian people voted for such an anti-immigrant figure, while his supporters say that Hofer is not tied to any scandals and decried the international media’s alarmist reaction to what they claim is just his patriotic support of national culture and values.
To discuss this we are joined by Sergei Utkin, head of Department of Strategic Assessment, Centre for Situation Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences (studio guest) and Vladimir Mikheev, independent geopolitical analyst and the host of weekly analytical program “TROIKA REPORT”(RBTH).
