SPÖ celebrates May 1st with tens of thousands: Ludwig and Babler in focus!

SPÖ celebrates May 1st with tens of thousands: Ludwig and Babler in focus!

On May 1, 2025, the SPÖ celebrated the day of work with tens of thousands of people on Rathausplatz in Vienna. In bright sunshine, Mayor Michael Ludwig and party leader Andreas Babler addressed their speeches to the gathered and emphasized the importance of hard measures for budget consolidation in the city. Ludwig announced that 95 percent of the Sprengel results in the municipal council election on April 27 showed a victory of the SPÖ, which makes the party to the strongest strength in the city and ludwig leaves Ludwig in the office of mayor.

In his course, Ludwig announced that a “strong state government” should be formed before the summer. However, he showed himself undecided about the future coalition partner and left open whether the cooperation with the NEOS, the ÖVP or the Greens will continue. However, he strictly excluded a coalition with the FPÖ.

praise for Vienna as a model city

Andreas Babler emphasized that Vienna should be considered a model city for nationwide implementations. He received severe applause and promised to fight passionately for the SPÖ and to work for all citizens. The event was largely peaceful, critical banners were hardly visible, apart from some against the stop of family reunification.

The results of the municipal council and district representative elections show a clear trend: the SPÖ came to 39.5 percent, despite a decline of 2.1 percentage points in 2020. The FPÖ, on the other hand, was able to increase from 7.0 to 20.7 percent, which makes it the second strongest party. The Greens follow 14.1 percent, while the NEOS reached 9.8 percent and the ÖVP only 9.7 percent, which is a decrease of 10.7 percentage points.

Occupation and political consequences

The turnout in the municipal council election was 1.11 million voters, while 1.37 million laid their votes in the district representative elections. Details on the turnout in the different Viennese districts are interactive on a graphic at KURIER, which shows where the participation was particularly high or low. This underlines the dynamics of the political landscape in Vienna and requires the parties to adapt and realign their strategies.

With the formation of a triple coalition in the federal government and the upcoming challenges, Viennese politics will remain exciting at least in the coming months. The developments of the last elections and the upcoming coalition talks could move Vienna in the direction of an even stronger social democratic steering direction.