Austria’s president set to win 2nd term without runoff vote

By PHILIPP JENNE and GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

VIENNA (AP) — Austria’s liberal president is on course to win a second six-year term in an election without the need for a runoff vote. Projections for ORF public television and the Austria Press Agency showed President Alexander Van der Bellen winning around 56% of the vote in Sunday’s election. The 78-year-old incumbent portrayed himself as the stable option in uncertain times, following a first term in which repeated bouts of domestic political turmoil gave the often largely ceremonial head of state unusually high visibility. The president said Austria faces “very uneasy times,” with worries about the war in Ukraine, energy supplies and prices and a potential resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic.