It was a tough weekend for European politics. In Austria, the center held as voters rejected a far-right candidate for president. In Italy, however, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi suffered a crushing defeat in a referendum on constitutional reform that he had turned into a referendum on his government. He promised to resign after the results were in, ushering in not only a political and economic crisis for Italy but for Europe as well.
Austria's presidential ballot was a rerun of a May vote: then, far-right Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer lost by 31,000 votes. He contested that outcome, only to lose the second election by an even larger margin to Green Party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen. While Austria's presidency is a largely ceremonial position, it has sufficient power to clash with the center-left government that currently rules.
More significantly, Hofer's victory would have signaled a new respectability to far right politics in Europe. He, and like-minded politicians throughout the continent, had hoped that they could ride the anti-establishment tide that powered the Brexit vote and the Trump candidacy to victory, setting the stage for election wins next year in France, Germany and the Netherlands. Instead, Austrian voters drew a line against such radical politics, even in a country with a checkered history concerning the right.
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