Austria
Graz (dpa) – In the municipal council elections in Graz in south-east Austria, the communist KPÖ surprisingly emerged as the winner. The KPÖ took first place – by a large margin – after the preliminary final result of the conservative ÖVP.
ÖVP mayor Siegfried Nagl drew the conclusions and ended his 18-year term shortly before the final election results were available. Accordingly, the ÖVP lost 12.13 percentage points to 25.66 percent, while the KPÖ rose to 29.11 percent (plus 8.77 points).
KPÖ top candidate Elke Kahr initially left it open whether she would become the first female mayor of her party in an Austrian capital. She will now hold talks about possible coalitions, she said. However, she has already ruled out a coalition with the ÖVP.
The communists in Graz are particularly popular because of their service-oriented approach to politics. For example, the party operates a tenant hotline that advises people on problems with homeowners.
Vaccine skeptics party in Upper Austria
There was another surprise at the state elections in Upper Austria: The Corona vaccination skeptics on the Human-Freedom-Basic Rights List (MFG) made it into the state parliament without any problems when they ran for the first time. According to the projection of the ORF after counting the majority of the votes, they come to 6.2 percent. The party was founded in Vienna in February and brought several constitutional complaints against the Corona measures.
According to the extrapolation, the conservative ÖVP of country manager Thomas Stelzer defended its first place. At 37.6 percent, it remains roughly the same as its 2015 result. The right-wing populist FPÖ and current coalition partner of the ÖVP, on the other hand, has to accept heavy losses. Six years ago, 30.36 percent voted for the blues, on Sunday it was only 19.8 percent – a minus of over ten percent.
In Linz, the ÖVP can either continue to form a coalition with the FPÖ, the SPÖ or perhaps with the Greens. Austria’s Federal Chancellor and ÖVP boss Sebastian Kurz was satisfied with the result and congratulated Stelzer on the “great election result”.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210926-99-373001 / 2
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