EU election

Vorarlberg has a new preferential vote empress

Christine Schwarz-Fuchs had invested a lot of time in the election campaign and was rewarded with 1723 preferential votes.

(Bild: ZVG)

Ranked at the bottom of the list, Vorarlberg's EU candidates had little chance of entering the European Parliament. Nevertheless, they were active in the election campaign and were rewarded with preferential votes. ÖVP candidate Christine Schwarz-Fuchs scored the most. 

Christine Schwarz-Fuchs received exactly 1723 preferential votes for the ÖVP in Vorarlberg. A more than respectable result, as the Lustenau woman had emphasized to the "Krone" newspaper only last week that she was not campaigning for preferential votes at all. Her election campaign was primarily about informing people about the work in Brussels and raising awareness of the importance of the EU elections.

The black Federal Councillor's efforts on behalf of the People's Party appear to have paid off. Despite significant losses compared to the 2019 election, her ÖVP still came out ahead of the FPÖ in the federal state. 2283 Vorarlberg voters also decided to give their preferred vote to top candidate Reinhold Lopatka. 

Harald Vilimsky (FPÖ) received the most preferential votes in the EU election in Vorarlberg.

(Bild: APA/Hans Punz)

The People's Party's toughest rival at the moment, the FPÖ, had fielded Harald Vilimsky, a top candidate who was not necessarily popular in the federal state. However, he even outperformed Reinhold Lopatka and, with 3352, won the most preferential votes in Vorarlberg. 

The results of the Vorarlberg FPÖ candidates were also impressive: Joachim Fritz (9th place) won 634 preferential votes. National Councillor Thomas Spalt (18th place) received 408 preferential votes and Member of Parliament Nicole Hosp-Feurstein (26th place) 337 preferential votes. 

Johannes Hartmann was also convincing
Johannes Hartmann ran an extremely solid election campaign for the Greens, who did better than expected in the end, and convincingly represented his core concerns of climate protection and democracy. The people of Vorarlberg appreciated this with 1070 preferential votes.

An exciting detail in passing: top candidate Lena Schilling (2350 preferential votes) also lost out to runner-up Alexander Thomas Waitz (3093) in Vorarlberg. 

Lena Schilling (Greens) is obviously not as popular in Vorarlberg as her party colleague Alexander Thomas Waitz.

(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

Among the NEOS, Christoph Gruber (14th place) was the Vorarlberger with the most preferential votes. 464 Vorarlbergers had written his name on the ballot paper. There were 2733 preferential votes for the leading pink candidate Helmut Brandstätter. 

For the SPÖ, which achieved a very respectable result by Vorarlberg standards, the preferential votes are likely to have caused some disillusionment. Only 1646 Vorarlbergers voted for top candidate Andreas Schieder - and thus significantly fewer than for the preferential vote empress Schwarz-Fuchs (10th place for the ÖVP). 

Red power woman surprised
Philipp Kreinbucher-Tyler (7th place on the SPÖ list and 234 preferential votes) also had to realize that there is still a little room for improvement in terms of preferential votes. Judith Knabl, a nurse and staff representative at Dornbirn City Hospital, received twice as many preferential votes with 562. And this from 18th place.