Vienna votes: tactics or necessity? The SPÖ under pressure before the election!

Vienna votes: tactics or necessity? The SPÖ under pressure before the election!

In two weeks, on April 27, 2025, the eagerly awaited elections will take place in Vienna. The top candidates are in an intensive election campaign, are taking part in numerous media events and are already engaged in heated debates. In this context, political scientist Peter Filzmaier raises some critical questions about the election and the SPÖ's strategy.

A central issue is the decision of Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig to bring forward the election date from autumn to Easter week. Filzmaier wonders whether this step was taken for tactical reasons in order to forestall possible unpopular austerity measures and tax increases in the city. A bad election result for the SPÖ is at stake, which further fuels Ludwig's motivation.

Election research in Austria

In the context of the upcoming election, the importance of election research in Austria becomes particularly clear. Loud univie.ac.at Austria, along with Greece, is one of the few Western countries that does not have a comprehensive academic election study. The AUTNES research network, which was launched at the University of Vienna, has been conducting the first national election study since 2013.

Project leaders Wolfgang C. Müller, Sylvia Kritzinger and Klaus Schönbach emphasize the uniqueness of their study, which analyzes both media reporting and interactions between voters and parties. Particular attention is paid to media analysis, which covers all regional and national media in order to record their influence on voting behavior.

Trends in voting behavior

The data from the AUTNES study so far shows that there has been continuity among the major parties, especially the ÖVP and SPÖ, since the last elections. An interesting pattern is the changing influence of religiosity and social affiliation, which is decreasing. Young voters are increasingly leaning towards the Greens and the FPÖ, while older voters prefer the SPÖ and ÖVP.

The AUTNES project, which will run comprehensively until 2015, has already surveyed over 10,000 Austrians. The study uses innovative methods to record voting behavior and thus comprehensively sheds light on the dynamics of voter behavior. These findings could also have implications for the coming elections.

While the top candidates are preparing for the last few meters of the election campaign, the public is discussing how the political decisions of the last few years could influence voters' opinions. The upcoming elections mean that both tactics and research on voting behavior dynamics will become increasingly important.

For further information about the electoral process in Vienna and the critical questions about the SPÖ, we recommend reading krone.at and wien.orf.at.