Styria has voted

Will the blues conquer the land of the unpredictable?

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

The Styrian election is over and the blue march continues. The FPÖ achieves almost 35 percent and is clearly in first place. The ÖVP plummeted by almost ten points and the SPÖ also lost votes. The previous government partners thus lose their joint majority.

The final result including the election map forecast in detail: The Freedom Party under top candidate Mario Kunasek achieved 34.8 percent and doubled compared to 2019. Governor Christopher Drexler and his ÖVP only achieved 26.8 percent (minus 9.3 points), while the SPÖ with Anton Lang achieved 21.4 percent (minus 1.6).

Greens halved, NEOS and KPÖ make it in
The Greens are almost halved to 6.2 percent, the NEOS are similar to their result five years ago at 5.9 percent, the KPÖ reaches 4.4 percent and also has to make up ground. On election night, the latter two initially had to tremble about entering the state parliament, but ultimately managed to win the necessary basic mandate.

The top candidates in the krone.tv and Puls 24 studio after the election: Claudia Klimt-Weithaler (KPÖ), Niko Swatek (NEOS), Christopher Drexler (ÖVP), Mario Kunasek (FPÖ), Anton Lang (SPÖ), Sandra Krautwaschl (Greens, from left)

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

All three small parties clearly fail
The small parties DNA, KFG and MFG, which only contested in Graz, clearly fail to make it into the state parliament for the first time with results in the tenth of a percent range. Voter turnout was just over 70 percent.

This is how your municipality voted:

The most important facts in brief:

• The ÖVP has suffered a historic failure, Governor Drexler also sees the responsibility for this in Vienna.
• After the veritable political earthquake, experts expect serious consequences for federal politics as well.
• The election survey conducted by Foresight/ISA shows that the decisive factor was not so much the people as the poor general mood in the country.
• The carpet of spots at municipal level in the "swing state" of Styria is now strongly colored blue.
• In Graz, the clocks traditionally run differently, with black, blue and red neck and neck. The ÖVP is ahead by a hair's breadth.

Election day in the krone.at ticker:

Black-red majority is history
The question often asked in the run-up to the election as to whether the previous black-red coalition still has a two-party majority was answered with a narrow "no": according to the final result including the electoral map forecast, the two partners together have 24 seats - exactly half of the 48-member state parliament.

In 2019, the ÖVP still clearly won ahead of the SPÖ and FPÖ. This order has now been reversed, with the FPÖ storming past both former major parties to take the lead. The exploratory talks, which are likely to be particularly tricky this time, will start next week, with the election winner Kunasek being the first in line.

Closing point for a deep blue super election year
A similar picture emerged in the National Council elections just under two months ago: the FPÖ marched to first place with 29%, the ÖVP slipped to 26% and the SPÖ stagnated at 21%. In the EU elections in June, the FPÖ had already achieved first place in a nationwide election for the first time.