"Krone" commentary

State elections in Burgenland: “Up and down”

Commentary on the major issues affecting Austria: Klaus Herrmann, Managing Editor-in-Chief

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

Only 250,000 eligible voters - no other Austrian province has fewer than Burgenland. So how the people in the far east of Austria vote in the state elections is just a minor matter? Not at all!

Because the Burgenland state elections on Sunday were the first after the FPÖ's breakthrough in the National Council and in Styria. In the neighboring province, Mario Kunasek, a blue party leader, is now in power, and FPÖ federal party leader Herbert Kickl will soon be in the chancellor's office.

Kickl has delegated his predecessor Norbert Hofer to his home state so that he can contest the office of Hans Peter Doskozil of the SPÖ, who has been in absolute power to date.

First place for Hofer - that much was already clear - remained out of reach. But a result significantly below that of the Blue Party in the national elections in Burgenland? Are the tough austerity measures announced by the federal government already dampening the blue euphoria, are the first leaves falling from the trees that have recently grown so dramatically into the sky?

Another question is: How long will Andreas Babler, who has only won one election - namely the one at the SPÖ party conference against Hans Peter Doskozil, but has lost everything since then, survive at the head of the federal party? Doskozil remains at the top in Burgenland. And in the federal government?

And with the Greens: will the "all green must go" that Blue-Black is signaling in the federal government possibly help them? Oh, the ÖVP? It has landed at the bottom.