Two defeats already

ÖVP gets off to a false start in the super election year

The election campaigns so far have hardly given the Chancellor any tailwind for the National Council elections.

(Bild: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER)

The ÖVP should be starting to feel nervous, as it has lost all elections in this super election year so far. The defeat in the municipal council and mayoral elections in Innsbruck on Sunday - only ten percent for Florian Tursky - was a resounding slap in the face. This made the reaction of Tyrolean Governor Anton Mattle all the more surprising.

"Of course I would have hoped for a better result. Nonetheless, I think we are on the right track," said Mattle on the evening of the election.

The party headquarters in Vienna are also trying to play down the disaster: Tursky is an extremely competent and committed politician, says General Secretary Christian Stocker. He would have been ideally suited to the office of mayor of Innsbruck. Stocker attributes the defeat to the fragmentation of the votes due to the numerous lists.

ÖVP General Secretary Stocker sees the fragmentation of the party as the cause of the election defeat in Tyrol.

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

That is only half the truth: sending the unknown State Secretary Tursky into the race against the popular hut owner and former ÖVP Deputy Mayor Johannes Anzengruber was a miscalculation - both by the ÖVP Tyrol and the federal party headquarters in Vienna and by Tursky himself.

Tursky was persuaded to take this step by former provincial governor Günther Platter, but the plan also suited him. He sees the center of his life in Tyrol and wants to start a family there.

Tursky appeared visibly dejected in front of the cameras on Monday - but he still wants to remain politically active.

(Bild: Nadine Isser)

However, his plan to unite the middle-class parties in Tyrol, which have been at loggerheads for years, has not worked out. Nevertheless, he is not thinking of resigning and wants to take over the city council position to which his group is entitled, although any ambitions for the seat of the provincial parliament are no longer particularly realistic with Sunday's result.

The calculation does not work out
The ÖVP is trying to make light of the result by adding up the "middle-class votes". However, this calculation does not add up, as the People's Party has also suffered a bitter defeat in Salzburg - it lost the mayor of the provincial capital to the SPÖ and has also lost ground in all the AK elections to date. One consolation was that it did well in the smaller municipalities in Salzburg. After the expected losses in the EU elections on June 9 at the latest, there should be fire under the roof for the People's Party.