Projections: Austria’s president wins second term against controversial far-right politician

Projections: Austrian president wins elections

VIENNA — Austria’s president easily won a second term Sunday, deflecting a challenge by a far-right politician who had denounced the country’s anti-Nazi law, projections showed.

Incumbent Heinz Fischer, a Social Democrat, had won 78.9 percent of the vote with 100 percent of ballots counted, according to the projections broadcast on public television ORF. Barbara Rosenkranz of the anti-foreigner and anti-European Union Freedom Party drew 15.6 percent. Rudolf Gehring of the tiny Austrian Christian Party trailed with 5.4 percent.

Turnout was a mere 49.2 percent.

The results — which do not include mail-in ballots — will only become official once the Interior Ministry announces them later Sunday.

Polls had predicted Fischer would win another six-year term and the vote was being watched as a measure of far-fight sentiment in a country at times still marred by its connection to the Holocaust.

Fischer, 71, is known for caution and diplomacy. He served as science minister and held various leadership positions in his party and in parliament before initially winning the presidency on April 25, 2004.

Rosenkranz, in contrast, caused controversy by suggesting that Austria’s law banning the glorification of the Nazis was not in line with the constitution and hindered freedom of expression. But she recently declared formal support for the law.

She also came under fire recently for a vague response to a question about Nazi gas chambers, but has since clearly acknowledged their existence.

The 51-year-old mother of 10, whose husband used to be part of a far-right political party that was banned for being too radical, said her comments on the country’s anti-Nazi law were misinterpreted by her critics and the media.

“Of course I condemn the monstrous atrocities — I’ve never done anything else,” Rosenkranz told The AP in reference to the mass killings of Jews and others by the Nazis.

Ferdinand Karlhofer, head of the University of Innsbruck’s political science department, said the results were a blow to the Freedom Party, which had hoped to position itself for key local elections in the Austrian capital this fall.

“The FPOe (Freedom Party) is coming out of this election with hefty minus points,” Karlhofer said in a telephone interview.

Freedom Party chief Heinz-Christian Strache, who wants to become the mayor of Vienna, initially predicted that Rosenkranz would win up to 35 percent of the vote but later distanced himself from her.