Back from the Brink

Today we found out who is to be the next President of Austria. His name is Alexander Van der Bellen, a Green party politician.

Perhaps more significant is who it will not be. The next Austrian President will not be Norbert Hofer, of the Freedom Party of Austria. Hofer was widely tipped to be the first far-right politician to become a head of state in Europe since the end of the Second World War. He topped the poll in the first round of voting, and when the votes were counted yesterday he appeared to be ahead. His campaign had tried to rally the Austrian people against the migrants who have been arriving over recent years. He had targetted Muslims as the root of Austria's ills. And it looked as if it had worked.

But today, the arrival of the postal ballots has enabled his opponent to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. By a mere 0.6% of the vote, the Green has prevailed.

So what? Why should we care what happens in some far-away country between people of whom we know nothing?

This matters because it means that, for now, the cordon sanitaire has been preserved. Since European democracies rose from the ashes of the Second World War, there has been a consensus that the far-right is beyond the pale. It is something to be resisted with all resources and powers at our disposal. The Belgians introduced a concept known as the cordon sanitaire, which means that all political parties will work together to lock out far-right parties. This was best seen in France in 2002, when the Front National reached the second round of the presidential election. The French Parti Socialist urged its supporters to back their ideological opponent, Jacques Chirac, under the slogan 'vote the crook, not the fascist.' When the BNP got two MEPs elected in 2009, they were shunned by other MEPs, and the British government would only give the assistance legally required of them. The BNP and National Front are excluded from local council structures when they do manage to gain the odd seat through defection or election. And most dramatically of all, the EU imposed sanctions on the Austrian government in 1999, when they invited the Freedom Party into government.

Luckily, we have been spared that sight again today. But mainstream politicians need to act, and act fast. They need to address the genuine grievances that the far-right play on. Offering real reassurances in a fast changing world is essential, otherwise populist demagogues will continue to fill the vacuum. The combination of economic dislocation and mass migration has been a gift to the far-right, and they are challenges that more mainstream politicians have seemed reluctant to confront.

Had the Freedom Party won in Austria today, it would have been a sign that this old world was over. It would have leant legitimacy to those across Europe who say our problems are caused by the 'other,' and that by closing ourselves in, and not tolerating the 'other,' we can somehow solve these challenges. We have tried that road before. And it ended in the fields of Srebrenica and the gas chambers of Nazi Germany.

Once again, the cordon has held. But we are living on borrowed time, and action is needed now to keep the monster at bay.