Elephant round

Nehammer was not the only one to benefit from Kickl’s refusal

One lectern remained empty at the elephant round - Karl Nehammer benefited from Kickl's absence, but not only him.

(Bild: Antal Imre)

The elephant round of "Krone" and Puls 24 brought a big surprise. NEOS top candidate Beate Meinl-Reisinger was the only woman to put up a brave fight and did almost as well as ÖVP leader Karl Nehammer. They benefited from the fact that Herbert Kickl chickened out and did not face the confrontation.

In a live poll during the elephant round, 15,000 viewers saw Karl Nehammer in first place with 34 percent, followed by Meinl-Reisinger with 31 percent, SPÖ leader Andreas Babler in third with 26 percent and Werner Kogler (Greens) in fourth with nine percent. "The survey is of course not representative, but the absence of Mr. Kickl was a factor and influenced the result," says political consultant Thomas Hofer.

Meinl-Reisinger performs particularly well
"However, Ms Meinl-Reisinger will be able to buy relatively little on election day because few people will probably switch from the FPÖ to her because of this performance." But measured against the size of the party, Meinl-Reisinger's performance is very good. For Nehammer, on the other hand, it is important that he won this confrontation as chancellor. 

51 of FPÖ voters voted for Neos
Christoph Haselmayer, who conducted the survey, says: "The NEOS did well in the Elephant Round because Meinl-Reisinger positioned herself clearly and presented factual arguments. She has the highest approval rating among her own voters. As the FPÖ was not represented, this earned her an additional 51%. 35% of FPÖ supporters voted for the ÖVP and Karl Nehammer. In this round, she also received the most votes from voters of other parties compared to the other candidates."

Meinl-Reisinger had succeeded in raising distinguishing features in several areas. "The NEOS are the only ones who say 'don't mess around, of course we need an austerity package'. Everyone else is afraid to say that. It was similar with the EU elections, where the NEOS are calling for a 'United States of Europe and a European army'. She can simply be more pointed." And she made good use of the space that Kickl left free, according to Hofer.

Babler should have worked harder on the ÖVP
The FPÖ leader, on the other hand, will probably justify his absence by saying that he has stayed away from what he calls the "unity party". Most observers were surprised by the question that Babler was allowed to put to Nehammer, namely about remedies for the dying farmers. "Babler could have worked much harder on the ÖVP and hit them over the head with everything that has happened in terms of social cuts from the SPÖ's point of view. In my opinion, he didn't do that enough," says the political expert.

An important victory for Nehammer as defending champion

(Bild: Antal Imre)

"Nehammer is currently riding the wave of 'I'm moderating the crisis'. That is appropriate to a certain extent in view of the floods. No mistakes have been made in the ÖVP election campaign so far." For Werner Kogler and the Greens, on the other hand, the cuddly course is a tightrope walk. There are attacks, but not directly against Nehammer, but against the federal states or the Chamber of Commerce. The idea behind this is that they don't want to make their own balance sheet look bad. "Now that the floods have been over for a few days, the Greens could become a bit more strident again, especially when it comes to the climate issue. The ÖVP is vulnerable there."