Vienna chooses: tactics or need? The SPÖ under pressure before the choice!

Vienna chooses: tactics or need? The SPÖ under pressure before the choice!

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

A central topic is the decision of the Mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig to pass on the election date from autumn to the Easter week. Filzmaier wonders whether this step has taken place for tactical reasons in order to advance possible unpopular savings measures and tax increases in the city. A bad election result for the SPÖ is at stake, which continues to fuel Ludwig's motivation.

election research in Austria

In the context of the upcoming election, the importance of election research in Austria becomes particularly clear. According to univie.ac.at , Austria is one of the few western countries that has no 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 manager Wolfgang C. Müller, Sylvia Kritzinger and Klaus Schönbach emphasize the uniqueness of their investigation, which analyzes both media reporting and the interactions between voters and parties. Particular attention is paid to the media analysis that covers all regional and national media in order to grasp the influence of this on the election behavior.

trends in the election behavior

The previous data of the Autnes study show that continuity has existed with the major parties, especially the ÖVP and SPÖ since the last elections. An interesting pattern is the changing influence of religiosity and social affiliation that decreases. Young voters are increasingly tending to the Greens and the FPÖ, while older voters prefer the SPÖ and ÖVP.

The Autnes project, which will run extensively by 2015, has already interviewed over 10,000 Austrians. The study uses innovative methods to record the election behavior and thus comprehensively highlight the dynamics of voter behavior. These findings could also have an impact on the upcoming elections.

While the top candidates are preparing themselves on the last meters of the election campaign, the public discusses how the political decisions in recent years could influence the voter opinion. The upcoming elections show that both tactics and research on the dynamics of election behavior will become more important.

For further information about the election process in Vienna and the critical questions about the SPÖ, reading of krone.at and wien.orf.at .