MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier on Monday, election officials announced that Green-backed independent candidate Alexander van der Bellen won the election with 50.3 percent of the vote, while far-right Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer received 49.7 percent.
Hofer ran on an anti-EU platform, stoking fears that Austria could be overrun by refugees. He called for further limits to be put on migrants in addition to the caps on the number of asylum-seekers introduced by the government earlier this year. Van der Bellen supports pro-European Union ideals and has a welcoming stance toward migrants.
"I must say it was very, very close [race] and still it shows that Austria is very split into large groups concerning this matter — what to do with the EU, to do with immigration," Esperson said, adding that "of course, we very much [would] have liked to see Mr. Hofer take the presidency."
