"Krone" commentary

It only gets really crispy after the election

Comments on current moments for the "Krone": Conny Bischofberger

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

One more sleep, then we - 6 million and 346,029 Austrians - are called to the polls.

In less than 48 hours it will be clear whether the FPÖ will emerge victorious in a National Council election for the first time since the EU elections, as the polls predict. Perhaps the ÖVP will be able to catch up in the last few meters and still manage number one. According to pollsters, it would take a miracle for the SPÖ not to finish in third place, which would also be historic.

And then? It will be interesting to see whether the mandate to form a government is "automatic" or not. The Federal President had suggested the latter.

Winners and losers will then have to move towards each other, negotiate as equals, make compromises and not lose face despite election promises. "I was happy to listen," said Karl Nehammer during the ORF Elephant Roundtable - a sentence that gives hope. Herbert Kickl, with whom no one wants to govern, dispelled one hope: "You would probably prefer me to disappear into thin air."

But nothing and nobody will vanish into thin air from Monday. Neither the FPÖ power factor nor the pressing issues for which voters rightly expect solutions. So the hardest part is yet to come.

What did Green Party leader Werner Kogler say on "Gspritzten" with Ida Metzger? "It will only get really crispy after the election."