Municipal elections 2025

Wiedl and Fitz in the run-off

Simon Vetter did not make it into the run-off, but the Greens can still celebrate a great result.

(Bild: Shourot Maurice)

Lustenau Simon Vetter (Greens) was 15 votes short of a surprise coup.

The elections in Austria's largest market town were all about one question: who will succeed outgoing long-term mayor Kurt Fischer (ÖVP)? However, this question will only be answered in two weeks' time in the run-off election, in which Patrick Wiedl (ÖVP) and the leading Freedom Party candidate Martin Fitz also made it through. Wiedl received 3482 votes (36.66 percent) in the direct election, while Fitz received 2670 votes (28.11 percent). The tragic hero of the election, so to speak, was Green Party top candidate Simon Vetter, who received only 15 votes less than Fitz and had to bury his dream of becoming mayor. The ecological party had pulled the well-known entrepreneur and organic farmer out of his sleeve as an ace at the end of last year - in view of the respectable result, one can speak of a successful maneuver despite the missed run-off. Wiedl now goes into the run-off as the clear favorite, especially as it can be assumed that the Vetter votes are more likely to switch to him than to Blue Fitz.

However, even if the Black Party has a good chance of defending the mayor's office, they suffered extremely painful losses in the municipal council elections: Although the ÖVP remains the party with the most votes with just under 37%, the bottom line is a drop of over 7% compared to 2020. The FPÖ is the second strongest party with 28.6%, followed in third place by the Greens with a strong 25.9% (2020: 19.2%). 5.3 percent of voters voted for the Neos (2020: 5.2 percent), while the Lustenau SPÖ suffered a veritable rebuff with just 3.3 percent (2020: 4.3 percent).