More Trouble in Europe

For John, BLUF:  It isn't just the Brits messing up the Progressive dream of a unified Europe under the rule of the bureaucrats in Brussels.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Austria’s Highest Court Orders Repeat of Presidential Runoff

It is The Old Gray Lady, and the Reporters are Alison Smale and James Kanter.

Here is the lede plus two:

Austria’s highest court threw out the results of the nation’s presidential election on Friday, giving a far right, euroskeptic party a second chance to win.  The ruling put the European Union’s core issues back in the cross hairs of voters only a week after Britain’s decision to quit.

Citing irregularities in ballot counting, Austria’s highest court ordered a do-over of the country’s presidential runoff, which an anti-immigrant candidate, Norbert Hofer, narrowly lost in May.  It was the first time the country ordered a rerun of a national election since 1945, when the Nazis were defeated.

Now, Mr. Hofer has the chance to become the first far-right politician elected head of state in Europe since World War II.  Much like the British vote last week, the new election in Austria could well serve as a referendum on the central tenets, roles and responsibilities of the European Union.

Boys and girls, it isn't until the TENTH paragraph that we find out the other candidate is "Alexander Van der Bellen, a 72-year-old former leader of the Green party who supports a border-free 'United States of Europe.'"

To be fair, I used to be a strong supporter of the idea of a "United States of Europe", but I visualized a federal system, decentralized and not run by technocrats.  I visualized an open system that allowed for differences, such as letting Turkey join the crowd.♠

For sure, their Lordships at The Old Gray Lady see this as more about some Eurosceptic than about a nation having to redo a Presidential election.♥

By the way, USA Today gets to the other candidate more quickly, by the fourth paragraph.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Turkey was not allowed to join and now it is slipping back toward an oriental approach it had been growing away from since WWI.  An error that will cost all of us in the long run.
I don't see this happening in the US, given that if no one gets the majority of the Electoral College it goes into the House of Representatives.