Parties Deliberate After Vienna Election

The Vienna SPÖ will start its exploratory talks to form a new state government this week. After the party committee meetings, Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) announced in writing at noon that talks with NEOS, Greens, and ÖVP will be held in the coming days. However, a coalition with the FPÖ is not an option for the SPÖ.

SPÖ Exploratory Team Unchanged

Alongside Ludwig, state party secretary Barbara Novak and the club chairman of the Vienna SPÖ, Josef Taucher, will form the exploratory team. It is the same trio as in the exploratory talks five years ago, which ended with a decision for the NEOS. Ludwig reaffirmed that a new government should be formed before the summer.

The mayor did not appear in front of the cameras in the morning. City councilor Jürgen Czernohorszky assumed that the formation of the government would take several weeks. He believes there is a good reason for not immediately committing to continuing the coalition with the NEOS. If there are three parties with which a government collaboration is possible, it is clear that one should first examine the substantive agreements.

Mahrer Bids Farewell

The greatest tension, however, is before the committee meetings of the ÖVP. After Sunday's election debacle, it is now clear that state party leader Karl Mahrer will vacate his position, but it is not yet known who will succeed him. The district chairman of the 1st district, Markus Figl, is considered the favorite, with the district chief of the 19th district, Daniel Resch, also mentioned as an alternative. Both managed to secure first place for the People's Party in the district elections yesterday, even though they clearly lagged behind the SPÖ in the municipal council election in both the Inner City and Döbling.

Already in the morning, the Greens are meeting. The NEOS, on the other hand, will not meet until tomorrow, Tuesday, as a spokesperson for the APA announced. The consultations are expected to last the entire day. Communication is planned for the late afternoon according to the current plan.

FPÖ on Tuesday

The state party executive of the FPÖ will meet on Tuesday morning. However, there seems to be little to discuss for the Blues. Although the Freedom Party, with their top candidate Dominik Nepp, almost tripled their share of the vote from 2020, coalition talks with the SPÖ are virtually ruled out.

Counting of Vienna Election

The remaining postal votes will also be counted on Monday. However, the majority is likely to have already been included on Sunday. This was the first time this happened in a Vienna election. Postal votes that arrived by Friday were immediately considered on election day.

On Monday, only the postal votes that arrived later and those of non-Austrian EU citizens who were allowed to vote in the district council election will be evaluated. The result of the preferential votes is also expected to be announced on Monday.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.