High voter turnout

Anything is possible in Graz: XXX is narrowly ahead

Mayor Elke Kahr (KPÖ) and her deputy Judith Schwentner (Greens) have to digest a considerable drop.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Sepp Pail, Jürgen Fuchs)

The ÖVP, FPÖ and SPÖ fought an exciting three-way battle in the Styrian capital on Sunday. In the end, the People's Party won the race by a hair's breadth. The governing parties, the KPÖ and the Greens, received a resounding slap in the face. 

Hardly predictable or assessable: the result for the city of Graz is always eagerly awaited. And rightly so, as the counting results showed again on Sunday. The ÖVP, FPÖ and SPÖ fought an exciting three-way battle to the end, which the People's Party ultimately won by a hair's breadth with a provisional 22.42% (minus 2.71 percentage points).

SPÖ delivers a surprise
The FPÖ and SPÖ were hot on their heels. The Freedom Party gained 8.32 percentage points to 21.43 percent. The SPÖ's performance in the Styrian capital was also particularly exciting: the Socialists were actually able to gain 5.17 percentage points to 20.71% under the clock tower - putting them in a respectable third place.

The result was predicted to be similar, but the fact that it is actually the case now makes me very sad. Nevertheless, we will continue on our chosen path together with the KPÖ.

Grüne Vizebgm. Judith Schwentner

A look at the district statistics shows just how close it was between the individual three parties in Graz: in Graz-Liebenau, for example, the SPÖ and ÖVP each achieved 21.3 percent. Zooming in even closer: 1374 residents voted for the ÖVP here, 1379 for the SPÖ.

Mariatrost: Once upon a time it was the ÖVP
In the once strongly middle-class district of Mariatrost, the Reds and the Blues, of all parties, fought an extremely exciting neck-and-neck race: The two parties each accounted for 15.6 percent of the votes here, with 840 FPÖ votes compared to 841 SPÖ votes in the end.

Green Deputy Mayor Judith Schwentner on election night.

(Bild: Juergen Fuchs)

Rebuff for city government
Contrary to the urban trend in previous elections, the governing parties KPÖ and the Greens suffered a severe rebuff. The Greens were punished particularly severely: they lost 10.65 percentage points compared to the last state election in 2019 and are now in fourth place with 14%. 

The KPÖ lost three percentage points of votes and now stands at 10.3% (5th place). Despite a gain of 1.56 percentage points, the Neos are in sixth place with a total of 9.87%.

The fact that we are ahead in Graz is a pleasing snapshot. At the same time, it is a mandate for the Graz VP to continue to improve every day.

Kurt Hohensinner, Grazer ÖVP-Chef

Bild: Foto Fischer/Graz

Small parties insignificant
Another special feature in the white-green provincial capital: three lists competed exclusively in "constituency 1" - i.e. in Graz and the surrounding area. The small parties KFG, MFG and DNA were not really able to score points with their programs and clearly missed out on a basic mandate. Specifically, DNA gained 0.7 percent, KFG 0.4 percent and MFG 0.2 percent.

Social justice and affordable housing will remain our core issues even after the election. We have been on the side of working people for many years - and will continue to do so.

KPÖ-Bürgermeisterin Elke Kahr

High voter turnout
Encouragingly, 64.4 percent of Graz residents cast their vote in this election, with a total of 188,813 residents eligible to vote. This represents an increase in voter turnout of 13 percentage points compared to 2019 (51.3%). In Mariatrost, as many as 75.3 percent went to the ballot box, putting the district in first place in terms of voter turnout.

Incidentally, a small proportion of the votes cast by polling card will only be counted on Monday, leaving a fluctuation margin of around 0.2 to 0.3 percent.