"What we see at the moment, is a sharp increase of violence, a number of rapes that we read about in newspapers every single day has been on a rise. Therefore, Austria is no longer secure as it used to be. Many people that come to Austria, take part in a violent crime, that deal with drugs, raping women and we have to differentiate between those people who needs protection, those who are asylum seekers and those who come here to abuse our hospitality and that is where we have to draw a fine line," Hofer said.
According to the Austrian Interior Ministry and Vienna police, crime has declined in the Austrian capital over the past decade, however, a slight rise was recorded in the first quarter of this year.
The rerun of the presidential elections was announced after Austria's Constitutional Court ruled in July that ballots and voting results had been handled improperly and annulled the results of the May 22 second round, upon which independent candidate Van der Bellen was declared winner, beating Freedom Party (FRO) candidate Norbert Hofer by just 31,000 votes.
On September 12, Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said that the country’s authorities had decided to postpone the presidential elections rerun from October 2 to December 4.
