Exciting until the end

Election day: Austria’s vote decides today

The "Krone" poster series "The Voice of Austria" on the occasion of the National Council elections is intended to give Austrians a weighty voice.

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

After a supposedly quiet election campaign, the agony of choice: who best represents the Austrians? Protest, hope, tactics: what effect does your decision have?

After 1828 days, it's our turn again. Exactly five years after the historic National Council election, in which Sebastian Kurz celebrated a brilliant victory with the ÖVP and the FPÖ plummeted shortly after the Ibiza scandal, we can finally vote again, the Austrians can once again raise their most important voice and re-elect the National Council and, subsequently, their government.

The letter to "Krone" readers, written by managing editor-in-chief Klaus Herrmann

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

What remains as the biggest surprise of this long-since worn-out, worn-out government, which began with the claim to unite "the best of both worlds", turquoise-green and ended black-green, not to say gray to grayish? That it lasted a whole five years! How can partners who live in their own worlds and don't want to or can't understand the cosmos of the other endure that long?

We won't see black and green again
But we can tick this story off today. We will almost certainly not be seeing a black-green coalition in the foreseeable future. This is not only because the two parties are light years apart, but above all because they will be light years away from a joint majority.

Today we can also tick off the election campaign, which many consider to be quiet, some even too quiet. This could be accepted if one had expected the "mother of all battles". If one had speculated that the turmoil and tirades experienced in the unspeakable U-committees and regularly in parliamentary sessions would continue unabated or even intensify during the election campaign.

No, it didn't get that bad. But on the other hand, there was hardly a lack of verbal jostling, low blows and vulgarities.

Kickl and Nehammer? Impossible!
We have seen many irreconcilable positions in this election campaign, but above all irreconcilable people. Virtually none of the candidates gave any indication that they liked the other. Apart from Karl Nehammer and Werner Kogler, who have nothing to do with each other politically but obviously still like each other personally. But Nehammer and Babler? Toxic. Kickl and Nehammer? Impossible, as the ÖVP candidate swears like a mantra.

Nehammer and Babler? Toxic. Kickl and Nehammer? Impossible.

(Bild: APA/Erwin Scheriau/Helmut Fohringer/Max Slovencik, Krone KREATIV)

But someone will have to form a new government with someone, because no party has an absolute majority in sight. And no candidate would have earned one.

It's about choosing the "lesser evil", I wrote here three weeks ago. Some reacted indignantly to this - you can't judge parties and candidates like that. But many people grudgingly agreed: that was precisely their dilemma in this election.

The agony of choice: who do you vote for today? Who best represents the "voice of Austria", which we have focused on in the "Krone" in recent weeks - see the demands on this page?

Many want to vote tactically
The agony of choice: many are probably also tending to vote tactically this time. Some to promote something, others to prevent something that worries them. Some to protest for or against something, others in the hope of doing something good for Austria.

What is left for us voters? To make the best choice according to our own conscience. And to raise our voices!