Austrian voters roundly rejected on Sunday a candidate vying to become the first freely elected far-right head of state in Europe since World War II, halting at least temporarily the wave of populism sweeping Western democracies.
The runoff vote was a litmus test, since it was a rerun of a vote held in May, before Britain voted to leave the European Union and Americans elected Donald Trump as president.
Norbert Hofer of the anti-immigration Freedom Party lost the May election by less than a percentage point, and polls had for months shown the race too close to call.