On a serious note though, while Waldheim was a horrible being, he was very, err moderated, in outlook and policy when compared to Hofer, not really far from Kohl or Chirac, so the continental Christian-democratic consensus of that time and age. The problem about him was more his past and his lying about the past than his actual policy (not that policy ever mattered when we were electing our President, until the media certainly discovered that that should change this spring) Hofer is obviously one dimension further from the centre.
Exactly. We're talking about *former* vs *active* here. And Waldheim in power operated as a mainstream continentalist.
But, like it or not, don't gloat about this being a resounding defeat for the far right; at that margin, it's still a scary hair away from its being a "resounding" *victory* for said forces. (A comparison that comes to mind is Quebec's 1995 separation referendum)