Austrian Elections & Politics 5.0 (Burgenland state election - January 26)

[Tender Branson]

It looks as if the ÖVP will get their best statewide municipal election result today since WW2, with ca. 46%, an increase of 3%.

The SPÖ will end up stable compared with 2014 and the FPÖ down 2% and the Greens down 1%.

It's very strange that the ÖVP never got more than 44.7% since WW2, despite Salzburg being a stronghold for them. But that probably has to do with the fact that the FPÖ used to be much stronger in the past, getting between 14-18% between WW2 and the 1990s. Now they are at just 10%.

[Tender Branson]

This is a thread dedicated to Austria. Please keep discussions about politics of other countries to their respective threads.

I think Andi just accidentally copied it into the wrong thread ...

[Tender Branson]

For the first time in over 50 years, the Communist Party has gained a seat in the Salzburg City Council.

They got almost 4% today, more than doubling their 2014 share.

[Tender Branson]

Final results of the Salzburg municipal elections (best result for the ÖVP since WW2):



SPÖ, FPÖ, Greens all down moderately - but the Greens also did really well in some areas.

There will be 11 mayoral runoffs in 2 weeks, for example in the capital and here in Zell am See.

[Tender Branson]

ÖVP/FPÖ have passed their welfare reform law today in their joint cabinet council meeting, as well as 4 Mio. € of direct aid to Syria, Jordan and Libya:

The Council of Ministers today adopted the new social welfare principle. With minimum income protection, the federal government is introducing a nationwide, more accurate and equitable social assistance system.

Helping people to help themselves - groups of people who are particularly worthy of protection are better off

At the press foyer after the Council of Ministers, the Federal Chancellor outlined the cornerstones of the minimum income protection reform together with Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, Social Affairs Minister Beate Hartinger-Klein and VP-Club Chairman August Wöginger. "The minimum income is an important project that we have now successfully completed. The reform is urgently needed, as we have a massive immigration in our system. Since 2012, the number of recipients has increased sharply.

Therefore, we now have with the Social Welfare Law a package that provides for a fair and fair system of work incentives, "said the Chancellor. "Our goal is for the people who can contribute to do so and work and, on the other hand, we need a strong social system to support people who really need our help." Individual groups such as people with disabilities, and single parents are particularly worthy of protection, so they would receive more benefits.

"With the reform we want to reduce the incentives for immigration into the system who does not learn German and therefore can not integrate into the labor market does not get the full benefit." The reform creates an incentive to learn the German language " Sebastian Kurz emphasized. "We do not want people to be dependent, but to have as many as possible integrated into the labor market, to help those who can not help themselves, Christian-social is what makes people strong, not what is dependent and weak, "said the Chancellor.

Promote integration and work readiness

Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache emphasized the importance of forcing and supporting, above all, the German language skills of migrants. This is an essential prerequisite in the sense of a positive integration. "The willingness to work is the basic requirement for the receipt of benefits, the social assistance is granted for a maximum of 12 months, after which an application must be made again." The Vice Chancellor was particularly pleased that in the future, single parents will be granted a supplement of up to € 103.50 per child. Persons with disabilities receive a supplement of 155 euros per month. This must be paid by the countries obligatory. "Social assistance brings more fairness and justice, and additional social benefits, such as family allowances, are naturally preserved and make Austria a family-friendly country," said Strache.

Social Minister Beate Hartinger-Klein was pleased that the reform was finally carried out after decades of discussion. "The Social Welfare Principle Law brings fair, efficient and harmonized solutions.We do not want people to remain dependent but create a model through which they can live independently again and without state help." We create binding framework conditions through nationwide harmonization At the same time, however, we are giving the countries an enormous amount of freedom within this framework in their implementing legislation, "stated the Federal Minister. The law contains a number of optional provisions to allow countries the best possible regional implementation legislation. The core of the reform is that the full benefit only pays to those who are willing to contribute.

Hartinger-Klein also informed together with the Vice Chancellor about the fact that the full property access does not come. "The grace period for home ownership remains protected and untouched for 3 years." Klubobmann August Wöginger stated in his statement that the reform of social assistance is a flagship project of this government and should serve as a springboard back into the world of work.

Four million euros in emergency aid from the AKF

The Federal Chancellor also informed about the provision of four million euros from the Foreign Disaster Fund (AKF) for the needy people in Jordan, Libya and Syria. "We use the funds to help organizations like the Red Cross and UNHCR to help people on the ground and to create better living conditions through demining and clearance," says Sebastian Kurz.

https://orf.at/stories/3114977

[Tender Branson]

Funny, but not really surprising fact, about the Salzburg municipal elections on Sunday:

Turnout in many small towns ranged from 80% to 94%, even though they mostly close at noon already or at 1 or 2pm.

In the capital, Salzburg City, turnout was only 48% (the lowest among all cities), even though polls were open the longest, until 5pm ...

Lazy city people.

https://www.salzburg.gv.at/stat/wahlen/gvw/index2019.html#rang.5.0.0.1

[Tender Branson]

The Greens are the last party to choose their candidates for the EU elections this weekend and with Green Party leader Werner Kogler running for 1st on the list, the Greens will soon need a new party leader as well if Kogler is elected to the EU parliament. Kogler has said he will take the seat if elected.

Based on their recent election results and rising poll numbers, it is even possible that the Greens not only get 1, but 2 seats in the EU parliament (popular TV cook Sarah Wiener is running for the 2nd list spot).

So, if Kogler (who has done a good job in re-structuring the Austrian Greens after their defeat in 2017) is elected to the EU parliament, these are the most likely candidates for Green Party leader (and there will be a huge generational shift in this case because Kogler is 57):

Nina Tomaselli (Vorarlberg) & Stefan Kaineder (Upper Austria), both 33 years old, both are already MPs in their states and both are already deputy party leaders for Kogler at the federal level.

  

Kaineder is seen as a "rising star", because of his theology studies and focus on agriculture and food safety, which could attract conservative voters back to the Greens.

Tomaselli is more focused on the social topics like poverty prevention and women's issues. If she follows Kogler, all 4 opposition leaders in Austria would be female.

[Tender Branson]

This is a very Austrian political story:

Austria to introduce rules for hikers after cow-trampling death

The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, has announced that the country will introduce a legally binding code of conduct for hikers who visit its picturesque mountain pastures in response to the death of a German tourist who was trampled by cows.

After the incident – which took place in Tyrol in 2014 – a court last month ordered the farmer who owned the cattle to pay 500.000 euros in damages to the 45-year-old victim’s family.

That caused outrage among farmers and consternation among the public, partly because the victim was walking her dog on a lead attached to her waist. Cows can charge to protect their calves when they see dogs, and hikers are advised to release their dogs in such cases, which she did not do.

“We will lay out clearly in the code of conduct what is expected of people who use mountain pastures,” Kurz told a news conference.

Kurz did not provide specifics but did suggest that dogs would be an important part of the new code, adding that problem cases have “almost exclusively” involved dogs.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/austria-to-introduce-rules-for-hikers-after-cow-trampling-death

[Tender Branson]

 Tender, how do the various parties feel about their results in the Salzburg area elections?

ÖVP = very happy (best result since WW2), strengthened their already-dominant position
FPÖ = mixed, won a mayor, but only because ÖVP/SPÖ found no candidate, otherwise they lost
SPÖ = mixed, didn't mobilize in small towns and the capital Salzburg, but gained in other big cities
Greens = (very) happy, because they got respectable results and sometimes gained ground
KPÖ = very happy, gained a city council seat in the capital for the first time in 57 years
NEOS = neutral, because they didn't run in a lot of towns (municipals are not so important for them)

[Tender Branson]

New "Profil" magazine poll:

34% ÖVP
25% SPÖ
24% FPÖ
  8% NEOS
  5% Greens
  2% NOW
  2% Others

Chancellor vote:

40% Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP-Inc.)
15% Pamela Rendi-Wagner (SPÖ)
13% Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ)
  4% Beate Meinl-Reisinger (NEOS)

"What is your opinion about the student strikes against climate change ?"

57% justified
40% not justified

https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20190316_OTS0001/profil-umfrage-kanzlerfrage-kurz-zieht-davon

[Tender Branson]

Turns out my precinct had a 60% majority for SPÖ+Greens in the mayoral vote last Sunday and would have elected the SPÖ candidate as mayor already in Round 1 with 53%, unlike the city as a whole where a runoff will be held next Sunday. My precinct was 12% more SPÖ than the city as a whole.

My precinct also had twice the support for the SPÖ as the district or state (where the SPÖ only got some 26-27%).

[Tender Branson]

Government study: Austria’s Muslims more than twice as likely as non-Muslims to hold anti-Semitic views

Austria’s Muslim residents are more than twice as likely as non-Muslims to endorse anti-Semitic statements, according to a survey commissioned by the Austrian government.

Arab respondents, who made up half of the Muslim group, were slightly more likely than Turks, who made up the other half, to agree with the statements.

Wolfgang Sobotka, president of the lower house of the Austrian parliament, presented the results of the “Anti-Semitism in Austria 2018″ study in Vienna last week. It surveyed 2,731 respondents older than 16 including 604 Muslims.



* Ten percent of non-Muslims agreed with the statement that “a lot is exaggerated in news about concentration camps” from the Holocaust. That figure was 41 percent among Turks and 35 among Arabs.

* Asked to react to the statement that “Jews control international commerce,” 39 percent of non-Muslims concurred. The figures were 63 and 64 percent among the Turkish and Arab groups.

* Asked whether they agree with a statement blaming anti-Semitic persecution of Jews on their own behavior, 19 percent of non-Muslims agreed. In the Muslim group, 45 percent of the respondents endorsed the statement.

* In the Turkish group, 28 percent agreed that “Jews still need to answer for the murder of Jesus.” The figure was 17 among Arabs and 13 among non-Muslims in the study.

European governments rarely commission such aggregated surveys, which some perceive as discriminatory and which are illegal in some European states.

Karoline Edtstadler, state secretary in the Ministry of the Interior, said in a statement about the report: “We will focus anti-racism efforts on immigrant children,” the TRT Turkish news agency reported Tuesday.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/austrias-muslims-twice-as-likely-as-non-muslims-to-hold-anti-semitic-views

[Tender Branson]

A new Research Affairs poll has the FPÖ overtaking the SPÖ for 2nd:



https://www.oe24.at/oesterreich/politik/Hammer-Umfrage-FPOe-ueberholt-SPOe/372845510

[Tender Branson]

Turns out my precinct had a 60% majority for SPÖ+Greens in the mayoral vote last Sunday and would have elected the SPÖ candidate as mayor already in Round 1 with 53%, unlike the city as a whole where a runoff will be held next Sunday. My precinct was 12% more SPÖ than the city as a whole.

My precinct also had twice the support for the SPÖ as the district or state (where the SPÖ only got some 26-27%).

Tomorrow:

Mayoral runoff here in Zell am See (SPÖ could take the mayor from the ÖVP, after SPÖ+Greens already got the majority back from ÖVP+FPÖ in the city council). This would end 10 years of ÖVP government here. I still expect it to be close though, the ÖVP usually does better with mobilizing their voters.

Mayoral runoffs also in the capital Salzburg City and 9 other big cities.

[Tender Branson]

A new Research Affairs poll has the FPÖ overtaking the SPÖ for 2nd:



https://www.oe24.at/oesterreich/politik/Hammer-Umfrage-FPOe-ueberholt-SPOe/372845510

Any explanation for this development?

Probably margin of error movement.

But on the other hand, the FPÖ has been quite disciplined in recent months - while the SPÖ is still struggling from internal divisions/intrigues from the Kern-era. Just recently, the more right-wing new Governor of Burgenland and Defense Minister under Kern, Doskozil, said he's with the ÖVP-FPÖ government to introduce a preventive imprisonment for criminal asylum seekers so that they cannot commit additional heavy crimes. SPÖ-leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner then had to back-pedal and to clarify that the SPÖ does not support this measure.

[Tender Branson]

A new SORA state election poll for Vorarlberg (votes in September) confirms that Vorarlberg is Austria's Utah (SORA is also Austria's "exit" pollster for the public ORF TV):

45% ÖVP (+3% compared with the 2014 state election)
21% FPÖ (-2%)
13% Greens (-4%)
11% NEOS (+4%)
  9% SPÖ (n.c.)
  1% Others (-1%)

EU election in Vorarlberg:

43% ÖVP (+15%)
20% FPÖ (+3%)
14% SPÖ (+3%)
12% Greens (-11%)
10% NEOS (-5%)
  1% NOW (+1%)
  0% Others (-6%)

Vorarlberg has a ÖVP-Green government.

Voters approve of the ÖVP-Green government by a 77-18 margin.

Voters think the state is on the right track by a 72-20 margin.

Voters disapprove of the federal ÖVP-FPÖ government by a 30-65 margin (!).

https://www.vol.at/umfrage-zur-landtagswahl-2019-das-rennen-um-platz/6140227

[Tender Branson]

Turns out my precinct had a 60% majority for SPÖ+Greens in the mayoral vote last Sunday and would have elected the SPÖ candidate as mayor already in Round 1 with 53%, unlike the city as a whole where a runoff will be held next Sunday. My precinct was 12% more SPÖ than the city as a whole.

My precinct also had twice the support for the SPÖ as the district or state (where the SPÖ only got some 26-27%).

Tomorrow:

Mayoral runoff here in Zell am See (SPÖ could take the mayor from the ÖVP, after SPÖ+Greens already got the majority back from ÖVP+FPÖ in the city council). This would end 10 years of ÖVP government here. I still expect it to be close though, the ÖVP usually does better with mobilizing their voters.

Mayoral runoffs also in the capital Salzburg City and 9 other big cities.

Polls are now closing for the 11 mayoral runoffs.

45% of eligible voters in the state can vote again today, despite only 11/119 cities having runoffs. That's mostly because big cities are having the runoffs.

[Tender Branson]

HUGE upset in the city of Straßwalchen (SPÖ pickup from ÖVP):

Tanja Kreer (SPÖ) defeats Liselotte Winklhofer (LIS, ex-ÖVP) by a margin of 58.7-41.3, despite the ÖVP endorsing Winklhofer's independent candidacy. In the first round, the ÖVP candidate + Winklhofer got 56% combined.



The city has been a ÖVP-stronghold so far (the ÖVP mayor got elected in 2004 and 2009 with 67% of the vote each and in 2014 with 61%).

Also: First mayor for the SPÖ in that city since WW2.

https://www.salzburg.gv.at/stat/wahlen/bmw/index2019.html#erg.116.1.0.0

[Tender Branson]

Polls here in Zell am See have closed now.

I'm more and more confident that the ÖVP-mayor could be defeated ... we'll see in ca. 30 minutes.

[Tender Branson]

With 100% of the votes counted in Salzburg City (the capital), the incumbent mayor Harald Preuner (ÖVP) has defeated SPÖ-candidate Bernhard Auinger by a 56-44 margin.

[Tender Branson]

Polls here in Zell am See have closed now.

I'm more and more confident that the ÖVP-mayor could be defeated ... we'll see in ca. 30 minutes.

BOOM !

Incumbent ÖVP-mayor Peter Padourek has been defeated by a huge margin.

The new mayor of Zell am See is Andreas Wimmreuter (SPÖ), who won by a 58-42 margin (First round was 46% ÖVP, 41% SPÖ, 13% Greens).



https://www.salzburg.gv.at/stat/wahlen/bmw/index2019.html#erg.137.1.0.0

[Tender Branson]

The SPÖ has also picked up Hallein (the 2nd largest city in the state) from the ÖVP, with Alexander Stangassinger defeating Maximilian Klappacher by a 56-44 margin.

The SPÖ also picked up Mattsee from the ÖVP ...

[Tender Branson]

Not a bad result today for the SPÖ, except for the capital.

And here in the district of Zell am See, the overall results for the SPÖ are even better:

The SPÖ gained 2% in the combined municipal council vote and gained 2 mayors (with the biggest prize being the mayor of Zell am See city and the city council there, which has been under ÖVP control for 10 years now).

It seems the excessive tourism, the high rent/apartment costs, the exploding secondary residency permits for foreign wealthy tourists and the traffic situation did the ÖVP in.

[Tender Branson]

In Oberndorf, the SPÖ candidate Georg Djundja has defeated the ÖVP candidate Sabine Mayrhofer by 56-44 and will become the first directly elected openly gay mayor in Salzburg.





Oberndorf is famous with tourists for the "Silent Night" chapel (in the background), where the Christmas song originates.

[Tender Branson]

For the first time since 1974, Austria had a budget surplus in 2018:

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/press/120562.html

That's according to the Maastricht definition, which includes the federal government budget, the state, the municipal and social insurance budgets.

Debt as a % of GDP dropped by more than 4% to 73.8% last year.