SPÖ on the rise: FPÖ is fighting for survival in Vienna's strongholds!

SPÖ on the rise: FPÖ is fighting for survival in Vienna's strongholds!

The political landscape in Vienna could change significantly in the coming months. Although the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) remains the dominant force, noticeable competition is expected from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). In the SPÖ strongholds, which are traditionally located in Vienna, the FPÖ has loudly vienna.at achieved a poor result in the last 2020 elections. That could now change.

While the FPÖ lost a lot of support in the last elections, the SPÖ managed to win back many votes. The SPÖ recorded significant increases in districts such as Simmering (46.63%, +6.37) and Floridsdorf (46.21%, +7.05). The decline of the FPÖ is particularly noticeable, which fell by around 30 percentage points in areas such as Floridsdorf and Favoriten and fell to single-digit results. Only in Simmering did the FPÖ maintain a double-digit number at 14.89%, after a dramatic decline from 42.90% five years ago.

The influence of Heinz-Christian Strache

Another aspect that could make the coming elections exciting is the comeback of Heinz-Christian Strache, the former FPÖ leader, who wants to run with his “Team HC Strache” list. His participation could generate additional votes for the FPÖ and influence the electoral strategies of other parties. The ÖVP, which is traditionally strong in middle-class districts, also celebrated successes in the 2020 elections, for example in the Innere Stadt and Hietzing districts.

In the last election in 2020, the ÖVP was able to increase its share of the vote to 20.43 percent and thus increase its number of representatives from 7 to 22. This was considered the best result in 33 years, as orf.at reported. The Greens also achieved a remarkable result with 14.80 percent, which led to an increase in their mandates from 10 to 16.

Voter turnout and postal voting

Voter turnout in the last district election was 65.27 percent, a decrease of 9.48 percentage points. Almost 44 percent of the votes were cast by postal vote or before the relevant election date, which influenced the counting of 317,091 valid votes. This trend towards postal voting could play a decisive role in the future and change voting behavior again.

The results from the electoral districts show that the SPÖ was able to achieve an overwhelming 48.4 percent of the vote in Favoriten, its strongest district. The NEOS, on the other hand, achieved their best results in the inner city with 11.92 percent, while they achieved 7.47 percent overall and were able to increase their mandates to 8.

In order to understand the election statistics and distribution of mandates, the Election database Austria comprehensive data and analysis. This data has been available since 1945 and covers different types of elections, providing a detailed insight into political developments in Austria.

Overall, the political landscape in Vienna is characterized by the high dynamics between the SPÖ, FPÖ, ÖVP and the Greens. The coming elections therefore promise to be exciting and could set the course for Vienna's political future.