Austria’s election: all you need to know about vote that could deliver EU’s first far-right president

Austria holds presidential elections on Sunday in a contest pitting a left-leaning contender against a right-winger supported by a populist anti-immigration party. Beyond the contest for the largely ceremonial office, the vote is being watched in other EU countries as a barometer of how well their populist candidates will do in upcoming elections. A look at the candidates and the issues:

WHO’S RUNNING?

Norbert Hofer and Alexander Van der Bellen, two candidates with strongly different views.

Since announcing his candidacy last year, Hofer has emerged as a major figure of his right-wing populist Freedom Party. The 45-year old engineer rose through party ranks and launched his bid for the presidency from his post as one of three parliamentary presidents. A smooth talker with a ready smile, Hofer changes the style, tone and contents of his message at will — from moderate, when addressing undecided voters to polemical with Freedom Party supporters that play to their eurosceptic and anti-migrant sentiments.

Van der Bellen is running as an independent but is supported by the Green Party, where he held senior positions until 2008. The rumpled-looking former economics professor emigrated from Estonia with his parents as a child. He is strongly supportive of the European Union, advocates liberal migrant policies and often sounds the alarm against what he sees as Europe’s rightward drift toward populism and nationalism.

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?

The main issue is the political direction of Austria, and in some ways, the European Union. While the president’s functions are mostly ceremonial, a win by Hofer will be seen as a lurch to the right for the country, a development that would be welcomed by other populist eurosceptic politicians within the EU either in power or seeking it.