Attention EU citizens: your vote counts in the Vienna election!

Attention EU citizens: your vote counts in the Vienna election!

The upcoming district council elections in Vienna cast their shadows ahead. On April 27, 2025, not only over 1.1 million Austrian citizens, but also around 265,000 non-Austrian EU citizens are eligible to vote, which corresponds to a total of around 1.37 million eligible voters. This is based on information from oe24.at out. The number of EU citizens eligible to vote is almost a fifth of the total number of voters. In order to support this target group, the “Little Vienna Voting Aid” was launched, which provides information about voting rights and participation.

Deputy Mayor Bettina Emmerling uses the opportunity to appeal to EU citizens to actively exercise their right to vote. Important issues for the upcoming elections include green spaces, schools and infrastructure. City councilor Jürgen Czernohorszky also emphasizes that the voter turnout of EU citizens should be increased in order to represent their interests at district level.

Eligible voters and requirements

The 265,000 EU citizens are allowed to take part in the district council elections in Vienna, but not in the Vienna municipal council elections. The requirements for voting include, among other things, that the main residence must have been in Vienna since at least January 28, 2025. In addition, voters must be at least 16 years old on election day. Wikipedia adds that 50 signatures per district are necessary for the district council election if a party does not have a seat there.

The “Little Vienna Voting Aid” offers comprehensive information for EU citizens in a total of nine languages, including German and English as well as the languages ​​of the seven largest immigration groups from the EU: Germany, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Italy. The aim of this initiative is to motivate as many people as possible to take part in the election.

Political developments and historical reviews

In the last district council election on October 11, 2020, the SPÖ changed political leadership in three districts. In Leopoldstadt the SPÖ took over from the Greens, in Simmering from the FPÖ and in Josefstadt the Greens took over from the ÖVP. There are currently SPÖ district leaders in 17 of Vienna's 23 districts, while the Neubau, Josefstadt and Währing districts are led by Greens and the Inner City, Hietzing and Döbling, have an ÖVP district leader.

The 2020 election saw a voter turnout of 57.73%, with a total of 786,777 votes cast. The results of this election with the vote shares of the main parties are summarized in the following table:

In addition to the political groups already mentioned, other parties have also announced their candidacies, including KPÖ, HC, SÖZ, HERZ and many more. The upcoming elections are characterized by a wide range of offers and a high number of citizens eligible to vote, which underlines the importance of the “Little Vienna Voting Aid”.

For further information on voting rights and the voting process, those interested can visit the official website of the Austrian government at oesterreich.gv.at.