In the first round of Austria's presidential elections in April, Hofer and Alexander Van der Bellen received 35 and 22 percent of the votes respectively, sending them into a head-to-head confrontation in the second round, held in May.
On May 22, Hofer was narrowly beaten by Van der Bellen, by just under 31,000 votes.
Austria's Constitutional Court then ruled that because some ballots and voting results had been handled improperly, the result should be annulled and the election held again.
More than four million people cast their ballots in Austria's presidential elections on Sunday, with at least 2.1 million voters expressing their preference for Alexander Van der Bellen, according to RIA Novosti.
Reliefed — Democracy wins 👍 Austria has a new president. Congrats to our new President Alexander Van der Bellen #vote #faith #congrats
— Sigrid Schmiedl (@SchmiedlS) 5 декабря 2016 г.
Meanwhile, Hofer has already conceded defeat and congratulated Van der Bellen on his victory. In an interview with Sputnik Germany, FPO head Heinz-Christian Strache touted Hofer as a man who "has done something grandiose in the past twelve months."
"Of course we're upset about our defeat, but democracy means there are winners and losers. As a Democrat, I would like to sincerely congratulate the winner, the new Federal President Van der Bellen," Strache said.
He expressed hope that Van der Bellen will become a "good and fair president" who will be able to unite the people and iron out differences in Austria's society.
Touching upon Van der Bellen's victory, he said that, "I by no means think that all this took place due to contesting the election results [in May]; on the contrary, I believe that challenging the election results was of paramount importance," Strache added.
It specifically drew attention to Hofer's increasing approval ratings among Austria's far-right movement members after Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections.
During the election campaign, Trump made a number of xenophobic statements, which, judging by the results of voting, attracted the interest of the white electorate with a low income, Gazeta.ru recalled.
In any case, Van der Bellen's victory means that expectations that the far-right president will be at the helm of Austria were never met, Gazeta.ru said.
As for Van der Bellen, he describes himself as "a child of migration", RIA Novosti reported. It added that the former leader of Austria's Green Party, who was born and lived for a long time in Vienna, has Russian roots.
Left-leaning candidate wins Austria’s presidential election: VIENNA — Left-leaning Alexander Van der Bellen and his… https://t.co/dnY08xqdvb pic.twitter.com/8Phtukm4hX
— Vancouver WA Buzz (@vancouverwabuzz) 5 декабря 2016 г.
Last century, Van der Bellen's family fled Russia to Germany, later settling in Austria. His colleagues and friends still call him "Sasha", according to RIA Novosti.
It quoted Van der Bellen as saying that it is impossible to grapple with international conflicts and climate change without Russia's participation. At the same time, he is rather critical of both Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump.
In this vein, RIA Novosti cited an opinion by Austrian politician Franz Fischler, president of the European Forum Alpbach.
Van der Bellen, for his part, said that he owes his victory to his supporters who managed to make their parents, "who were probably not going to vote", cast their ballots in his favor.
He added that at the end of his presidential term, he wants Austrians to perceive him simply as one of them, RIA Novosti said.
