For his first official visit outside his country, the new Austrian president, Alexander Van der Bellen, made a strong speech in favour of the European Union to MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday 14 February. He spoke of how he had beaten his opponent from the far right, Norber Hofer, by basing his campaign on the values of the EU.
Recalling his origins, with his mother being Estonian and his father Russian, Van der Bellen, who is a member of the Greens, described himself as a combination...