Historically bad

ÖVP and SPÖ sulk: We are not to blame!

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA)

A blue roller plows through the Green Mark! Around 35 percent of Styrians voted for the Freedom Party in Sunday's regional elections despite the expenses scandal. Meanwhile, the losing parties ÖVP and SPÖ are eagerly looking for someone to blame for the historic defeat ...

When the projection showed the FPÖ ahead with 35.4 percent, a deafening "Jaaa" burst over the blue party headquarters in the Alexander-Götz-Haus. Regional Managing Director Stefan Hermann: "This is a historic result, but our hand is outstretched." We will see how Christopher Drexler (ÖVP) and Anton Lang (SPÖ) will deal with the cooperation. However, they are busy looking for culprits.

The Social Democrats have identified insurmountable developments, said regional managing director Florian Seifter in an initial reaction at the Gösser Bräu in Graz, where the SPÖ followed the first projections. He identified a national and global trend, which had already been observed in the National Council elections, as the cause. 

The Social Democrats are now satisfied with little: After all, they had managed to "go a bit further" compared to the result in the national election eight weeks ago, when the SPÖ had only achieved 18.59 percent in Styria, said Seifter.

Criticism of "Stalin-understander" Babler
Rudi Fußi, candidate for the SPÖ party chairmanship, was even clearer and attacked his internal rival Andreas Babler. "People don't want a Stalin-understander at the head of the federal SPÖ." The Styrian Social Democrats around top candidate Toni Lang had "run well". 

"But you can't run uphill against a disastrous federal trend. This continues a negative series: the ÖVP is falling apart, the SPÖ is not even benefiting from this and has reached a historic low," said Fußi in a statement published at the time of the first projection. The federal party executive is responsible and must finally put an end to this "embarrassing spectacle".

Lang and Drexler were clearly left behind by the FPÖ.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/ERWIN SCHERIAU)

Top candidate Anton Lang also saw federal influences, but "it was a Styrian election with me as top candidate and that is also my responsibility". Lang was visibly moved when he had to comment on the state election figures in front of various media. 

Drexler: "A big thank you to Vienna"
In the People's Party, the culprit is quickly found: Alexander Van der Bellen. State Councillor Werner Amon was sent in front of the microphones first. Federal policy issues had been decisive. Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen's approach of not entrusting the party with the most votes with the formation of the government "has demonstrably caused us serious damage", said Amon. The election campaign in the Green Mark had not lacked credibility.

ÖVP state leader Drexler claimed to have given his all. He sees himself as a "pawn of the Republic". In an initial reaction, he smugly sent a "big thank you to Vienna". Drexler was visibly offended and did not recognize any mistakes in his own election campaign. For him personally, it was a heavy defeat. He had actually had the impression that he was leading a "productive state government". He will now call for a vote of confidence.

Hanging heads among the Greens
"The result simply hurts", said Timon Scheuer, regional managing director of the Styrian Greens, in an initial reaction. "Obviously, the focus on the race for first place has created a situation in which we have not managed to convince more people," said Scheuer.

"It's bitter, but we will have to live with the result." When asked about the pending results in the provincial capital of Graz, where the Greens traditionally achieve stronger results, he said that there was no need to hope for miracles. Scheuer described the projected result for the FPÖ as "frightening".

Inflation essential for voters
In Styria, there is a growing view that the state has developed negatively. In an election survey conducted by Foresight and ISA for ORF, 38 percent of respondents stated that they had perceived a rather negative development over the past five years.

One of the most important election campaign topics for respondents was inflation: 42% stated that they had discussed it "very often" during the election campaign. 43% also said that they had had to restrict their everyday life very or quite a lot because of inflation. Health and care were also regularly discussed by 38%, followed by immigration (35%), crime and protection against terrorism (27%) and the economy and budget (25%).

According to the election survey, ten percent of Styrians only made their voting decision in the last few days. 77 percent made their decision some time ago, twelve percent two to three weeks ago.