"Krone" commentary

Before the Innsbruck election: mountain, bike or ballot box after all

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

The big day of the municipal council and mayoral elections will be on Sunday. Will the people of Innsbruck even go to the polling stations? Claus Meinert, editor-in-chief of the Tyrolean newspaper "Krone", takes a closer look in his commentary.

It's supposed to be mostly nice today. That is bad. At least when there's an election in Innsbruck. Because history, or perhaps we should say the last mayoral election in Tyrol's provincial capital in 2018, shows that many voters are more attracted to the mountains - whether on foot, by bike or even on skis - than to polling stations when the weather is fine. So it's quite possible that at 4 pm sharp today, one or two eligible voters will still be sitting in a pub, ordering a Spritzer or sour Radler and thinking to themselves as they take their first sip: "Isn't there something going on today? Hamm? Exactly! Elections in Innsbruck. But it's too late now anyway. Cheers!"

This or something similar must have been the case six years ago, when just one in two eligible voters dragged themselves to one of the many electoral districts. In the mayoral run-off election two weeks later, interest even plummeted to 44 percent. The smiling winner was Georg Willi. It is quite possible that when the provisional final result is announced this evening as planned at around 7 pm (assuming there is not another counting mishap in Innsbruck), no stone will be left unturned and there will be resignations and other (nasty) surprises.

Rarely has an election been filled with so many question marks and unknowns. However, it is doubtful that the unspeakable flood of (sometimes empty) posters will encourage people to vote.