Reinforced FPÖ course? – Kickl: “Signal for the end of the political establishment”

According to Kickl, Van der Bellen had the historically worst result of a sitting federal president when he was reelected, “although the whole political system was behind him”.

Kickl’s claims, however, cannot withstand a fact-check: Franz Jonas had exactly 52.8% of the vote when he was re-elected in 1971, and Adolf Schärf exactly 55.4% in 1963.

“Van der Bellen result embarrassing”
The Liberal member of the National Council, Susanne Fürst, who had also been traded in as a presidential candidate, spoke of a very good decision to send Rosencrantz into the race. “We got a very good result,” she said, even though the goal of reaching the second round was not reached. Alexander Van der Bellen’s result was described by Fürst as “very embarrassing” for a sitting president.

Kickl described Rosenkranz’s result as “amazing”. Rosencrantz voters sent a clear signal “that the political establishment has reached its limits”.

Kickl: “Freedom course significantly strengthened”
The FPÖ leader added in his statement: “ÖVP, SPÖ, Greens and NEOS, the provincial governors, all chambers, unions and various media supported the incumbent. Yet it was only enough for just over fifty percent. This is a bitter defeat for the system parties.” According to Kickl, the citizens had clearly strengthened the liberal course on Sunday.