Before the first session

Big shake-up in the Vorarlberg state parliament

Harald Sonderegger (ÖVP) is likely to remain president of the state parliament.

(Bild: Mathis Fotografie)

The Greens in particular suffered a major setback in the state parliament elections. They lost three of a total of seven seats. The ÖVP lost three seats and the SPÖ one. The big winner of the election, the FPÖ, gained more than twice as many seats. 

The state parliament election is over. It is now clear how many mandataries the five parties will be allowed to send in future. However, it is not yet clear exactly who will sit in the 36 seats. One reason for this is that Governor Markus Wallner needs a government partner, which means that - in the event of a black-blue coalition - two to three seats could become vacant for the Freedom Party. The preferential votes are also not published. This result could also lead to one or two changes.

ÖVP sends the most MPs
As things stand at present, Veronika Marte, Bernhard Feuerstein, Christina Hörburger, Guido Flatz, Heidi Schuster-Burda, Hanno Lecher, Patrick Wiedl, Karin Feurstein-Pichler, Harald Sonderegger, Clemens Ender, Gerda Schnetzer-Sutterlüty, Monika Vonier, Andrea Schwarzmann and Cenk Dogan have a mandate from the ÖVP. Thuringia's mayor Harald Witwer missed out on a seat in the state parliament. Who will be the new leader of the People's Party? The question of who will succeed Roland Frühstück as leader of the ÖVP is likely to be an exciting one. Monika Vonier, Veronika Marte and Heidi Schuster-Burda have good chances. Harald Sonderegger is likely to remain president of the provincial parliament.

It is by far the most difficult to predict who will end up in parliament for the Freedom Party, which also has a seat on the Federal Council. Joachim Fritz, Hubert Kinz and Robert Blum have the three seats in the Bregenz district. In the Dornbirn district, Christoph Waibel is said to have overtaken Martin Fitz from Lustenau, meaning that the Dornbirn man is likely to join Markus Klien in the state parliament.

Two candidates for provincial council positions
The three seats in Feldkirch will initially go to Daniel Allgäuer, Andrea Kerbleder and the mayor of Übersaxen, Manfred Vogt. Both Allgäuer and Kerbleder have a good chance of winning a government seat. The liberal employee representative Michael Koschat could then benefit. In the Bludenz district, apart from party leader Christof Bitschi, only Joachim Weixlbaumer has a secure mandate. Here, however, Kornelia Spiß can justifiably hope to return to the state parliament. The same applies to Nicole Hosp, who could enter via the state list - if those ahead of her take the route via the respective district lists.

State parliament vice president Sandra Schoch (Greens) will concentrate on Bregenz.

(Bild: Markus Gmeiner)

The distribution of seats is clear for the Greens, who now only have four seats. These should go to Daniel Zadra, Eva Hammerer, Bernhard Weber and Christine Bösch-Vetter. Tourism spokesperson Nadine Kasper and state parliament vice-president Sandra Schoch share the same fate as Harald Witwer and will have to devote themselves to political work at municipal level in the coming years. Particularly bitter: the fifth mandate was narrowly lost - it would have gone to the young climate activist Johannes Hartmann.

No loss of seats despite minus
Not much has changed for the SPÖ: the Social Democrats had already lost the fourth mandate gained in 2019 during the last legislative period. Former party leader Thomas Hopfner threw in the towel in 2021 and subsequently sat as a wild deputy in parliament. From November, Mario Leiter, Manuela Auer and Reinhold Einwallner will most likely represent the red colors there. No mandate for Halil Calim despite preferential votesThe party's modest performance is likely to be particularly annoying for Halil Calim. According to reports, the "preferred vote-getter" even outpolled Einwallner by around 300 votes in Bregenz. The ex-national councillor is unlikely to care, as he will enter via the state list

Not much has changed for the NEOS: in addition to finance spokesman Gary Thür and youth spokeswoman Fabienne Lackner, party leader Claudia Gamon also won the mandate.