Austria Rejects Far Right Nationalist Candidate

By Worldview
A woman passes posters of left-leaning presidential candidate Alexander van der Bellen in Vienna, Austria, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Van der Bellen defeated right-wing rival Norbert Hofer in Sunday’s election, a victory welcomed by moderate politicians across Europe seeking to thwart advances by right-wing populist forces looking to weaken the European Union.
A woman passes posters of left-leaning presidential candidate Alexander van der Bellen in Vienna, Austria, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Van der Bellen defeated right-wing rival Norbert Hofer in Sunday's election, a victory welcomed by moderate politicians across Europe seeking to thwart advances by right-wing populist forces looking to weaken the European Union. Ronald Zak / AP Photo
A woman passes posters of left-leaning presidential candidate Alexander van der Bellen in Vienna, Austria, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Van der Bellen defeated right-wing rival Norbert Hofer in Sunday’s election, a victory welcomed by moderate politicians across Europe seeking to thwart advances by right-wing populist forces looking to weaken the European Union.
A woman passes posters of left-leaning presidential candidate Alexander van der Bellen in Vienna, Austria, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Van der Bellen defeated right-wing rival Norbert Hofer in Sunday's election, a victory welcomed by moderate politicians across Europe seeking to thwart advances by right-wing populist forces looking to weaken the European Union. Ronald Zak / AP Photo

Austria Rejects Far Right Nationalist Candidate

By Worldview
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Austrians bucked a trend in the Europe over the weekend and handed a defeat to far-right presidential candidate Norbert Hofer.

The presidential post is mostly a ceremonial one but a win for Hofer would have been significant since no European democracy has elected a far-right head of state since WWII.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Dutch parliament is considering a ban on clothes such as burqas and niqabs in some public places. The lower house has already approved the measure and it now needs approval by the Senate. 

Farid Hafez, a professor in the department of political science at the University of Salzburg and editor of the Islamophobia Studies Yearbook joins us to talk about the vote in Austria and the Netherlands.