Suddenly in the election campaign

Vienna election brought forward to April 27

The election planned for the fall will now take place in the spring.

(Bild: ©adisa - stock.adobe.com)

Vienna's mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) let the cat out of the bag during the red-pink government retreat: The Vienna elections will indeed be brought forward and will take place on April 27, one week after Easter.

The rumors about an early election had intensified over the last few days. The new date is even earlier than the originally planned date of mid-May. Vienna has thus found itself in an intensive election campaign out of nowhere: there are just 14 weeks and three days between the announcement and election day.

Electoral success hoped for through reaction to federal policy
The SPÖ and NEOS are apparently hoping that the early election date will give them momentum and encouragement at the polls from disappointed ÖVP and FPÖ voters - as close as possible to the inauguration of a possible blue-black federal government and concrete budget savings plans and how these measures will - also - affect the residents of Vienna.

"Turning point" is imminent
In a video distributed simultaneously on all relevant social media channels, Ludwig explained the early election with the imminent "turning point" in the Republic and the fact that he wanted to spare Vienna a month-long election campaign.

Clear preference for a continued red-pink coalition
Ludwig emphasized that his "progressive coalition" with the NEOS represented a "counter-model" to the blue-black plans and already indicated a clear preference for continuing this cooperation. They want to continue working in a new city government, which should ideally be formed before the summer.

This was also emphasized by Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS). He compared the political situation to an approaching storm, in which one cannot concern oneself with election campaigns.