Norbert Hofer

The FPÖ performed well in the 2017 Austrian legislative election, and it formed a government coalition with the Austrian People's Party. Hofer was chosen to lead the Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology.

On 28 January 2016, the FPÖ presented him as its candidate for the 2016 presidential elections. He won the first round of the election, held on 24 April. He placed close second in a neck-and-neck race with Alexander Van der Bellen, the former Green Party spokesman.

The second round election was held on 22 May 2016, with 49.7% of votes cast for Hofer while Van der Bellen, his opponent, received 50.3%, – a margin of victory of only 30,863. Evidence was subsequently presented to the Constitutional Court of Austria that approximately 78,000 absentee ballots were improperly counted too early, which theoretically could have influenced or altered the outcome. Consequently, on 1 July, the Court annulled the second round results and thereby precluded Van der Bellen being sworn into office, and ordered the election be re-run. Incumbent president Heinz Fischer left office on 8 July, and so the three presidents of the National Council – Doris Bures (Social Democratic Party of Austria), Karlheinz Kopf (ÖVP) and Hofer – became joint acting presidents of Austria.

The Court-ordered election was held on 4 December 2016, with Van der Bellen again emerging as the victor. Despite predictions that election fatigue and cold temperatures would lead to a reduction in participation, voter turnout actually increased from 72.7% in May to 73.8%; expectations for a similarly-close result also proved wrong, with the margin of victory for Van der Bellen increasing by approximately a factor of ten as he was supported by around 53.3% of voters. Hofer conceded soon after the first exit polls were reported, posting on Facebook: "I congratulate Alexander Van der Bellen for his success and ask all Austrians to pull together and work together" and added that he "would have liked to look after Austria" and confirmed his intention to run again in 2022. His campaign manager, Herbert Kickl, who is also the secretary of the Freedom party, attributed the defeat to "the establishment – which pitched in once again to block, to stonewall and to prevent renewal." Hofer remained as joint acting President until Van der Bellen was sworn into office, which is due to occur on 26 January 2017. Political scientist Farid Hafez argued that nevertheless, it was a huge success for the FPÖ and Norbert Hofer to reach 47% of the votes, while normally, the FPÖ reaches up to 30% at most at a national parliamentary election.

In February 2015, Hofer proposed that South Tyrol, an autonomous German-speaking province administered by Italy and formerly part of Austria-Hungary, should be absorbed into Austria. In 2016, Hofer stated that he would want Austria to hold a referendum on its membership of the European Union if the European Parliament were to assume more powers or Turkey acceded to the bloc. Hofer has also defended the right to gun ownership.

Hofer became Third President of Austria's National Council on 29 October 2013. He succeeded Martin Graf in this function.

Hofer is in his second marriage and has four children – two daughters, Anna-Sophie and Vivien and two sons, Yanik and Jeremie. He was raised as a Catholic but converted to Protestantism; his wife and children are Catholic. His main residence is in southern Burgenland.

Hofer serves on the board of directors of Eurosolar Austria, has served on the boards of Mapjet AG (2010–2011) and International Sky Services AG (2011–2012) and was executive chairman of PAF private trust (2011–2012).

Hofer worked his way up the ranks of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and became a close advisor to Heinz-Christian Strache, who took over the leadership of the Freedom Party from Jörg Haider in 2005.

In August 2003 Hofer crashed a paraglider in Stubenberg and received severe spinal injuries. He engaged in six months of rehabilitation, moving from a wheelchair to the use of a cane to walk.

From 1996 to 2007, Hofer was provincial party secretary of the FPÖ in Burgenland and, from 1997 to 2007, council member of the City of Eisenstadt. Since 2006 he has been deputy regional party chairman. From 2008 to 2012, Hofer served as vice president for Burgenland of the Österreichischer Zivilinvalidenverband. He was energy and environmental speaker from 2006 to 2015, as well as FPÖ spokesman for the disabled in the National Council.

He finished secondary school at the HTBLA Eisenstadt with specialization in aeronautics. From 1990 until 1991, Hofer fulfilled his military service. From 1991 until 1994 he worked as an aeronautical engineer at Lauda Air Engineering.

Norbert Gerwald Hofer (German pronunciation: [ˈnɔɐ̯bɐt ˈhoːfɐ] ; born 2 March 1971) is an Austrian politician serving as the leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) since September 2019. Prior to that, he was Third President of the National Council from 2013 to 2017, his party's candidate in the 2016 Austrian presidential election and Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology in the first Kurz government from 2017 until 2019.

He ran on his promise of "putting Austria first" and received the highest number of votes in the first round with 35.1 percent, putting him in a runoff. 24 April vote total was the best-ever result for the Freedom Party at federal level since 1956. Hofer benefited from the recent migrant crisis, where around 90,000 migrants applied for asylum in Austria, straining the country's resources and public empathy. The Freedom Party had opposed the government's original "welcoming culture" and during the summer of 2015 began to lead opinion polls.