District Council Election: Greens Captured First Place in Vienna-Margareten
In the night leading up to Tuesday, the last of the missing postal votes for the Vienna district council election from Sunday were counted in Vienna-Donaustadt. Despite losses, the SPÖ remained clearly in first place in Donaustadt, while the FPÖ also made significant gains here. It was already confirmed that the Greens had taken the 1st place from the SPÖ in the district of Margareten. This means the Greens hold first place in four of the 23 districts.
According to the preliminary final result after counting all postal votes on Monday evening, the Greens in Vienna-Margareten received 32.5 percent of the votes, while the SPÖ received 31 percent. Previously, the SPÖ was ahead with 35.3 percent (Greens previously 28.2).
Before the election on Sunday, the Greens were already in first place in three district councils - in Vienna-Neubau (7th district), Vienna-Josefstadt (8th), and Vienna-Währing (18th). The party not only defended all these top positions but even expanded them.
Gains also in other Green districts
In Vienna-Neubau, the Greens increased their share to a solid 48.1 percent (+3.2), while the SPÖ lost slightly to 20.4 percent (-0.2). Third place went to the NEOS with 9.3 percent (+1.4) ahead of the ÖVP (7.7/-6.0) and the FPÖ (7.5/+4.5). The KPÖ reached 6.6 percent (+1.8).
In Josefstadt, the Greens were also able to make massive gains in the district council elections: An increase of 10.5 percentage points brought the party to 44.1 percent. The ÖVP suffered significant losses here: With a decrease of 14.5 percentage points, their share of the vote was almost halved to now 16.0 percent. The SPÖ lost only marginally here (-0.4) and is now the new second with 18.2 percent. They are followed by NEOS (9.5 percent), FPÖ (7.4), and KPÖ (4.7).
In Währing, the Greens also managed to further expand their already held top position. With an increase of 4.3 percentage points, they are now at 43.0 percent - well ahead of the ÖVP, which is only at 17.9 percent (-9.6). The SPÖ lost 2.4 points here and is in third place with 15.5 percent.
Joy among Green party leadership
The Greens were delighted: "Margareten is going Green. We are pleased about the fourth green district leadership in Vienna. The Greens in Margareten, with top candidate Michael Luxenberger, have focused on the right issues in the district: The construction of the subway as an opportunity and turning point to fundamentally change the district," congratulate the two party leaders of the Vienna Greens, Judith Pühringer and Peter Kraus, to the future district leader Michael Luxenberger in a statement.
Margareten is a "rough diamond that still needs the right polish," said Luxenberger. "Now it is important to seize the opportunities that literally lie on the street to end through traffic in residential areas and create more green spaces."
No Other Power Shifts
In Simmering, where the FPÖ had hoped to conquer the district as it did in 2015, everything remained the same and the SPÖ stayed ahead. They managed to achieve 42.2 percent of the votes there - and even increased slightly by 0.7 percentage points. The FPÖ reached 36 percent, which is an increase of 7.5 percentage points.
In the Inner City, the ÖVP was able to maintain its top position, even though the 36.2 percent represented a decline of 4.4 percentage points. The FPÖ (+6.8 to 11.7 percent) and the NEOS (+1.9 to 13 percent) were able to gain here.
Just like in Simmering, the SPÖ also outpaced all other competitors in its traditional stronghold Favoriten. 42.6 percent were reported for the Reds there - which, however, represented a decrease of 5.2 percentage points. The FPÖ climbed by 16.2 percentage points to 26.7 percent, but the gap remains considerable.
In Donaustadt, the counting lasted until Tuesday morning. The SPÖ lost 7.7 percentage points here and holds first place with only 37.4 percent. The FPÖ increased massively to 27 percent - an increase of 17.2 points). The Greens took third place with 12.7 percent (+1.7) ahead of the ÖVP with 8.6 (-11.2) and the NEOS (8.5 percent/+2.5).
The Team Strache of former Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache performed poorly. Only in Floridsdorf and Donaustadt did the list make it into the district council, with one mandate each.
The KPÖ made significant gains overall and even has a district councilor in the 1st district. In the 5th Vienna district as well as in the 15th and 20th, the Communists even overtook the ÖVP, and in the 15th and 20th also the NEOS: With 8.8 percent (+3.1), the KPÖ in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus received more votes than the ÖVP (6.5 percent/-7) and the NEOS (6.3 percent/+0.8). In Vienna-Brigittenau, the KPÖ reached 7.5 percent (+3.9), the NEOS 6.6 (+1.6), and the ÖVP 6.4 (-8.4). And in Margareten, the KPÖ was ahead with 8.1 percent (+2.8) compared to the ÖVP (with 6.8/-7).
Remaining Postal Votes Were Counted on Monday
In the district council elections, non-Austrian EU citizens are also allowed to participate. Their postal votes were all counted only on Monday. These were not considered on election day, even if they had already arrived before the weekend. This distinguishes them from the postal votes of voters with Austrian citizenship. Here, only those that arrived shortly before the election were evaluated on Monday.
Overall, the SPÖ lost 2.6 percentage points compared to the district council elections in 2020 and reached 35 percent of the votes across Vienna. The FPÖ gained significantly by 11.1 percentage points and landed at 18.9 percent. The Greens improved slightly overall - by 0.8 points to 19.3 percent, thus remaining (unlike in the municipal council election) just ahead of the Freedom Party.
The NEOS were able to gain 2 percentage points and reached 8.6 percent. The ÖVP also suffered significant losses at the district level. They lost 9 percentage points and achieved only 11.1 percent, but remained ahead of the Pink Party here, unlike at the municipal council level.
The KPÖ reached 4.5 percent (+2) and thus achieved significantly more than the Strache Team (just under 1 percent with a decrease of 1.9).
The voter turnout in the district council elections, including the postal votes counted on Monday, reached 54.7 percent - significantly less than in 2020 with 57.7 percent.
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.