Cancellations and announcements

“Places still available”: SPÖ chats become public

Andreas Babler wants to give a speech with "heart and brain" at the party council.(Bild: zVg, APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER Krone KREATIV,)

Things are anything but smooth sailing in the red party apparatus at the moment. With Barbara Blaha, SPÖ leader Andreas Babler has canceled a prominent candidate for a fixed red seat in the National Council. There are still places available for next week's party council, at which Babler's SPÖ would like to unofficially start the election campaign. "Poor planning", they criticize. 

The crowd looks different. With the introductory words: "Dear comrades, there are still places left for the party council", SPÖ Federal Managing Director Klaus Seltenheim recently addressed his comrades in an internal WhatsApp group of the federal party executive committee. To ensure that the seats in the Wieselburg exhibition hall on April 27 are well filled, the red party manager also sent the registration link to be on the safe side. After all, party leader Andreas Babler wants to give a programmatic speech with "heart and brain" in his home province and present a list of comrades who will implement his ideas in the National Council in future. 

Andreas Babler wants to give a speech with "heart and brain" at the party council.(Bild: zVg, APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER Krone KREATIV,)

Cancellation and candidates
Barbara Blaha, head of the trade union-affiliated Momentum Institute, is one of the red party leader's preferred candidates who has now finally and officially turned him down.

"I left the SPÖ almost 20 years ago and have since been asked repeatedly by various parties whether I could imagine running for office. I am honored by this interest, but I run a non-party think tank and our work is far from finished," she told the "Krone" last week. This was followed a few days later by a clearer rejection. Blaha had thought about Babler's offer for a long time, but in the end apparently could not bring himself to accept it. But who will now get the top 10 seat offered to Blaha and which of the red grandees are already secured?

How the seats are allocated
As a general rule in the SPÖ, mandataries must always accept the "lowest" mandate. What this means can be explained using the example of Doris Bures, the presumed second-placed candidate on the red federal list. She is not only running on the federal list, but also on the state list (1st place) in Vienna and in her constituency (9E - Vienna South-West).

It is highly probable that she will do so well again that she will (once again) make it directly via the constituency. This will automatically free up a ticket on the state and federal lists for candidates further down the list. The mandates of the up-and-coming red women's leader Eva-Maria Holzleitner or the popular club leader Philip Kucher, for example, are similarly well secured. However, the mandate of party leader Babler, who, as reported, will not be on any state list, is not secured several times over. His confidante Julia Herr is also only in 7th place on the Vienna state list and may still have to be given a mandate.

However, a fixed place among the top 10 on the federal list is still available. According to information from the "Krone", the candidates in the race include Paul Stich, head of the Socialist Youth, trade unionist Reinhold Binder, Christoph Matznetter from Vienna, former State Secretary Muna Duzdar and LGBTIQ spokesperson Mario Lindner. The two federal directors Sandra Breiteneder and Klaus Seltenheim, on the other hand, are only likely to be outsiders. In any case, the SPÖ did not want to engage in speculation in advance. "The list is currently being discussed and will be decided by the federal party executive on April 26 and the party council on April 27," they said.

The fact that the rush for the party council is still limited is probably also due to internal dissatisfaction. "Shortly afterwards is May Day, when we as social democrats celebrate ourselves throughout Austria anyway. It was simply badly planned," criticize comrades.