The ÖVP is experiencing a “debacle” in the Tyrolean capital. Leftists have reason to be happy. However, there are no clear majorities. The Green mayor has to go into the runoff election.
Innsbruck – Innsbruck has elected a new local council. The Greens remained just about the strongest force in the Tyrolean capital. The conservative ÖVP experienced a “debacle” with its electoral alliance, as the Austrian political scientist Peter Filzmaier told
ORF
. The second strongest force in the local council will be the list of ex-ÖVP man Johannes Anzengruber. For the first time in decades, a list from the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ+) entered the city parliament. The right-wing authoritarian FPÖ fell well short of the result predicted in surveys. The central issue in the election campaign was housing policy.
Innsbruck: Runoff election in the mayor's office between Georg Will and Johannes Anzengruber
The people of Innsbruck will elect their mayor in a runoff election on April 28th. The incumbent, Georg Willi (Greens) and Anzengruber, who came first with almost 23 percent of the vote, will take part. The ex-ÖVP man achieved more than 19 percent with his own list straight away. Willi had previously explicitly ruled out a coalition with the FPÖ. Anzengruber told the
Tiroler Tageszeitung
after the election that he was “not up for extremes.” By this he probably meant not only the radical right but also the communists who had recently joined the local council. Mayor Willi announced on ORF that he wanted to forge a “stable progressive coalition”.
Result of the mayoral election in Innsbruck: Green incumbent first – FPÖ man Lassenberger defeated
candidate |
Voting share |
|---|---|
Willi (Greens) |
22.89 |
Anzengruber |
19.37 |
Lassenberger (FPÖ) |
15.92 |
Mayr (SPÖ) |
15.22 |
Turkish (ÖVP) |
10.41 |
(All figures in percent, preliminary final result; source: Tiroler Tageszeitung
)
Innsbruck election ends without clear majorities - but with a clear defeat for ÖVP and FPÖ
Eight parties made it over the newly introduced four percent hurdle into the new Innsbruck local council. There are no clear majorities based on ideological camps. The only thing that is clear is that the FPÖ and ÖVP as well as the civil lists lost. Above all, the ÖVP, which only rallied behind former State Secretary Florian Tursky shortly before the vote.
The lists gathered in the alliance fell from around 30 to around ten percent. The FPÖ lost more than three percent. The ÖVP and FPÖ only control around a quarter of the mandates. Previously, more than half of the local council seats were held by the ÖVP and Freedom Party alliance.
Result of the local council election in Innsbruck – eight parties in the city parliament
Political party |
Voting share |
|---|---|
Greens |
18.87 |
YES |
16.83 |
FPÖ |
15.21 |
SPÖ |
13.58 |
ÖVP alliance |
10.15 |
KPÖ+ |
6.72 |
FRITZ |
5.5 |
ALI |
4.83 |
(All figures in percent, preliminary final result; source: Tiroler Tageszeitung
)
Former ÖVP state secretary “personally disappointed” after Innsbruck election defeat – no plans to resign
ÖVP candidate Tursky told
ORF that
he was “personally disappointed” with the election result but wanted to stay at the top. The FPÖ had divided opinions on election evening. Mayoral candidate Markus Lassenberger told the broadcaster that he was satisfied with the election results because in absolute terms no votes were lost. In a postscript, he saw himself “excluded” by Mayor Willi. The liberal state leader Markus Abwerzger, on the other hand, expected a higher result and was saddened by the “left-wing list” that now governed the local council, the daily
Standard
reported .
Although there is no progressive or even left-wing majority in the local council, the left-wing camp has achieved success. Despite losing around six percent of the vote, the Greens remained the strongest force with just under 19 percent. The Social Democrats led by top candidate Elisabeth Mayr gained slightly to 13.5 percent. The Alliance Alternative List Innsbruck (ALI) was able to hold its ground with gains just above the four percent hurdle. And for the first time in decades, the KPÖ entered the local council with more than six percent.
After election victory: KPÖ wants to become a “social voice in the local council” of Innsbruck
At the beginning of March, the communists in Salzburg achieved a remarkable success in the local council election with 23 percent. The Salzburg political scientist Reinhard Heinisch identified the reason for this in an interview with
merkur.de
in a distribution conflict over living space. The Innsbruck local council decided on a “housing emergency” as early as 2022 due to excessive rents and vacancy rates. A parallel that KPÖ+ and its top candidate Pia Tomedi followed up on in the election campaign. Innsbruck needs “affordable housing”, and for this the KPÖ+ wants to be a “social voice in the local council” that will remind other parties of their promises, Tomedi told the
Tiroler Tageszeitung
.
Economic forecast for Austria: Social issues up to the National Council election
Social issues will remain on the agenda until the National Council elections in the fall and the EU elections in June. Economically, Austria is doing much worse than some of its neighbors: inflation was recently about twice as high as in Germany and was at times the highest in the euro zone. The economic forecasts are also bleak with a maximum of 0.2 percent growth this year. The FPÖ, led by right-wing radical Herbert Kickl, is currently leading in National Council election polls. But Innsbruck is now the second major city in which the KPÖ has been able to achieve success by addressing the social issue aggressively without engaging in the usual radical left-wing dogmatism.
Contrary to the national trend, the FPÖ did not win in either Salzburg or Innsbruck. In Innsbruck, however, theoretically almost 20 percent of those eligible to vote were citizens from the EU who are not allowed to vote in the fall.
(kb)