The working-class vote explains the rise of Austria’s far-right

So Austria has a new leader. The radical leftist Alexander Van der Bellen, a former Green party leader running as an independent, has just edged out radical right-wing politician Norbert Hofer in one of the closest elections in European history. After postal votes were counted, Van der Bellen had 50.2 per cent and Hofer 49.8 per cent – a margin of just 0.4 percentage points.

Most of the continent will probably breath a sigh of relief while still being disturbed at the size of the radical right vote; more shocking, perhaps, is the fact that among the working-class, there was almost unanimous support for Hofer, with the Freedom Party receiving 86 per cent of votes from workers. And bear in mind that in the first round of elections the centre-left got just 10 per cent of that demographic, compared to 72 per cent for the populist right.

That’s a striking statistic. What’s even more striking is the similarity the Austrian election has with the British political outlook.