Unofficial politics
Relying on students: Georg Willi and his disciples
Innsbruck's mayor knows that he can rely on "his" students. Two important challengers, on the other hand, have so far only left the common path.
There are still seven weeks to go until the elections in Innsbruck (April 14). There will be 40 local councillors and a separate election for the post of mayor, which will be decided directly. Seven weeks in which a lot can happen. The current starting position is interesting. The incumbent mayor Georg Willi is considered the favorite to become head of the provincial capital once again.
But not because he has shone with many ideas and deeds in recent years, but because his opponents are even "tearing each other apart" internally.
Major bourgeois parties biggest challengers
On paper, his biggest challengers are the so-called major bourgeois parties. After almost three decades (!) of dispute, the Für Innsbruck group with Christine Oppitz-Plörer (founded in 1994 by Herwig van Staa as a split-off from the former Innsbruck ÖVP with Mayor Romuald Niescher at the helm) and the ÖVP have joined forces - they are now calling themselves "Neues Innsbruck". The lead candidate is Florian Tursky, currently still State Secretary in the federal government and responsible for digitalization. The clear goal: to win back the mayor's seat.
Anzengruber also wants to get to the top
On paper, this is a straightforward matter, provided you don't shoot yourself in the foot. But that's exactly what happened when they failed to keep one of their own ranks quiet. Johannes Anzengruber in particular. Formerly a popular innkeeper on an Innsbruck mountain pasture, he was drawn into politics. And he is drawn even further, he also wants to be at the top. He also wants to become mayor. After all talks with Anzengruber failed, he left the ÖVP and now wants to climb to the top alone. He founded his own group called "Yes - now Innsbruck."
Tursky "too stiff"?
Since then, Anzengruber has been stepping on the gas, not to say full throttle. He approaches people - as a former landlord, this is an easy game for him. In contrast to Tursky, they say. More and more people - including those close to him - are saying that he comes across as "too stiff" and is therefore not really popular with voters. His current double political role as State Secretary and leading candidate for the mayoral election is also not exactly an advantage. However, the sparrows are already whistling from the rooftop that Tursky will retire as State Secretary in the foreseeable future in order to devote himself entirely to Innsbruck.
Lassenberger has the best chance of reaching the run-off
The best chance of making it to the run-off against Willi for the mayoral office is currently given to FPÖ top candidate Markus Lassenberger - precisely because of the disagreement between the Tursky and Anzengruber camps. The Freedom Party candidate has barely made an appearance so far. "That's the best he can do. Just don't make a mistake," is even the word from his party. The FPÖ will make further gains in Innsbruck, also due to the national trend, and possibly become number one. However, it is highly unlikely that there will ever be a blue mayor in Innsbruck. The reason: Lassenberger would not even be supported in a run-off election by the other losing civic parties or centrist parties, let alone by those to the left of center, who are certainly closer to Willi.
Hoping for student votes
There are still seven weeks to go until the municipal elections, in which almost 105,000 people were eligible to vote in 2018. Interestingly, this is 18,000 more than in the regional elections in Innsbruck. How is that possible? The answer is simple: these are the students who registered for this election and who - it can be speculated - predominantly voted Green and therefore Georg Willi. According to insiders, Willi can count on around 15,000 student votes in the event of a run-off. This is all the more significant as Willi only needed 23,791 votes to win the mayoral seat in the 2018 run-off election. Challenger Christine Oppitz-Plörer received 21,171 votes. So 2620 crosses decided in favor of Willi.
Georg Will against whoever
And anyone with a little mathematical knowledge and interest will realize that the two numbers together do not even account for half of all possible votes (104,245). In other words, more than 56% of eligible voters were not interested in the duel for the mayor of the provincial capital. So much for many Innsbruckers' understanding of democracy. At the time, Willi was thus elevated to the throne by less than a quarter of those eligible to vote in Innsbruck. Mainly thanks to his student supporters, who can be relied upon.
The same could happen again on April 28, when the run-off election will be "Georg Willi against whoever!"
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