Election campaign stop in Upper Austria

Babler entered safe SPÖ territory in Goisern

(Bild: Loy Robert)

SPÖ leader Andreas Babler toured the Upper Austrian Salzkammergut region in his motorhome this week. Stops were made in Bad Ischl, Hallstatt and Bad Goisern. The "Krone" was there for part of the tour and observed the election campaigner from Lower Austria.

Slowly and gently, the white motorhome with Viennese license plates and the SPÖ logo rolls up to the pub in the Goisern district of Au. This Friday, the SPÖ is making a stop at the "Vieh Heli" on its "With heart and brain" tour. This is a butcher's shop and inn. Today they are serving half a grilled chicken with chips or salad for nine euros. That's cheap in comparison, the locals like to come here.

Babler spoke to the voters in Bad Goisern.

(Bild: Loy Robert/Robert Loy)

How will SPÖ chairman Andreas Babler, who plans to win the election in the fall, do here? Can the pragmatic people from the Salzkammergut region go along with him?

A good 100 visitors have come. Anyone with a seat in the garden is offered a "Kesselhoaße" and a drink. But first Babler has to explain why you should vote for him. And it takes less than two minutes before he receives applause. Namely when he talks about the future of "our children": "The SPÖ is not just one of the many offers on the ballot paper, but the alternative."

During his stop in the Salzkammergut, there was also a trip on the Plätte across Lake Hallstatt. Sitting next to him is Elisabeth Feichtinger, who is vying for a place in the National Council.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/SPÖ)

Babler on the government: "This is pure mismanagement"
And: We need to get out of this shortage economy. "If you look at the healthcare system - it's pure shortage management." Or: "We know that when we go shopping today, we pay a thousand more over the year to cover our basic needs." What he is trying to say is that everything was better when the SPÖ was still in government.  

Local MP pushes his way into a group photo
The SPÖ chairman speaks freely, forcefully and rousingly. He is sure to be applauded. Babler is accompanied on this day in the Salzkammergut by local SPÖ MPs such as Elisabeth Feichtinger, who is also fighting for votes. Photos are taken in the "Hoamat" with the party leader, which can be put to good use. It's worth pushing yourself into the picture.

I want to work hard to put things right. For example, we had the best healthcare system until a few years ago. Now we're experiencing something completely different.

SPÖ-Vorsitzender Andreas Babler in Bad Goisern

Former SPÖ member supports Babler: "Better than in the polls"
The most interesting guest on this day is sitting calmly in the guest garden: the red legend Reinhard Winterauer (77), mayor of Bad Goisern for what feels like an eternity, and from 2007 also briefly the SPÖ's federal managing director. He says: "If someone is elected three times in a town as difficult as Traiskirchen (Babler is mayor there, note), he must have something up his sleeve - certainly more than many other comrades."

Reinhard Winterauer was the federal managing director of the SPÖ and supports Andreas Babler's course.

(Bild: Loy Robert/Robert Loy)

"FPÖ is worse than the polls show"
For him, who was at the forefront of the SPÖ in its best times, one thing is clear: "He is the right candidate. We are in a better position than in the polls and the FPÖ is in a worse position than in the polls."

55.8 percent for red: dream results for the SPÖ
Babler is on safe ground in Goisern. That was also the case there in the past. In this red bastion, the SPÖ recently won the EU elections, leaving the ÖVP and FPÖ behind. In the neighboring municipality of Obertraun, where Egon Höll, a member of the SPÖ, is mayor, approval ratings were as high as 55.8 percent. Babler can therefore count on the people in the (red) Salzkammergut.