About this election
The Austrian presidential election of 2016 was one of the most extraordinary in modern European history. It pitted the far-right Freedom Party's Norbert Hofer against the Green-backed independent Alexander Van der Bellen, produced a result so close it was annulled by the Constitutional Court, and had to be re-run — with Van der Bellen ultimately prevailing in December to become the first president from the Green movement in any EU country.
The President of Austria (Bundespräsident) is directly elected for a six-year term (renewable once) by a two-round system: if no candidate wins an absolute majority in the first round, the top two contest a run-off. Though largely ceremonial, the presidency carries significant reserve powers — appointing and dismissing the Chancellor and government and dissolving the National Council. For decades the office had alternated between candidates of the two large parties; 2016 shattered that pattern, as for the first time neither the ÖVP nor the SPÖ candidate reached the run-off.
The first round on 24 April 2016 was a rout for the establishment: the FPÖ's Norbert Hofer led with 35.05%, ahead of Van der Bellen on 21.34% and the independent Irmgard Griss on 18.94%, while the SPÖ's Rudolf Hundstorfer (11.28%) and the ÖVP's Andreas Khol (11.12%) were humiliated. The run-off on 22 May was won by Van der Bellen by a razor-thin margin, but the FPÖ challenged the conduct of the postal count, and in July the Constitutional Court annulled the result and ordered a re-run, citing irregularities in how absentee ballots had been handled.
The re-run second round, twice postponed and finally held on 4 December 2016, gave Van der Bellen a clearer victory: 53.79% to Hofer's 46.21%, a margin of around 348,000 votes on a turnout of 74.21%. Van der Bellen, who had improved his showing across the country, carried six of the nine states — including Lower Austria and Salzburg, which had backed Hofer in May — while Hofer held Burgenland, Carinthia and Styria.
Van der Bellen was sworn in on 26 January 2017. His election was widely seen across Europe as a check on the rising far-right tide, coming weeks after the Brexit vote and Donald Trump's victory. As president he would later play a decisive constitutional role: managing the fallout of the 2019 Ibiza affair and the collapse of the Kurz government, and again in 2024–25, when he steered the formation of a coalition that kept the election-winning FPÖ out of power.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.