Right Wing Nationalist Set To Win Rerun Austrian Presidential Race

Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer has widened his lead in a Gallup poll ahead of October’s repeat election for the Austrian presidency.

Hofer lost by a whisker in May to former Greens party leader Alexander van der Bellen in an election that Austria’s constitutional court this month ordered re-run given vote count irregularities.

A series of Islamist attacks in Europe and Britain’s decision to leave the EU since the original vote have shuffled the political deck in neutral Austria.

The poll published by the Oesterreich paper on Sunday showed the midpoint of the wide range of support for Hofer at 52 percent — one point higher than a poll in early July found — versus 48 percent for van der Bellen.

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