Shaking in Styria: FPÖ triumph and ÖVP debacle!

Shaking in Styria: FPÖ triumph and ÖVP debacle!

Graz, Österreich - Graz - election sensation in Styria! The freedoms have done the incredible: with Mario Kunasek at the top, they colored Styria deep blue and won 35 percent! A doubling of their result from 2019. Hard to believe, but true - the party now has 18 mandates in the state parliament. A real political quake for the established forces!

The former state power ÖVP only sees the taillights of the FPÖ success: it only came to 26.7 percent. Governor Christopher Drexler has to seriously swallow in view of a loss of five mandates - his base of power is shaken! The SPÖ was also only able to record 21.6 percent in this whirlpool of indignation. United in black and red? That was once a story. Together they would only come to 23 seats and no longer represent a majority in the 48-member state parliament.

Vienna on the pillory

Especially for Drexler, the result is a bitter pill, because he had always warned of the consequences of ignoring the true folk rage. And now that: an election debacle of historical size! Not embarrassed, he stuck in the direction of federal politics when he defiantly announced: "A big thank you to Vienna" - he felt like "peasant victim of the republic".

The resounding slap in the face from Graz, however, is particularly echoes to Vienna, where Chancellor Nehammer is under considerable pressure. After the National Council election on September 29, in which the FPÖ also triumphed, President Van der Bellen Nehammer and not Herbert Kickl had commissioned government formation. But with Styria as a gradual example, it could be hairy for the incumbent chancellor: a triple coalition from the ÖVP, SPÖ and Neos seems to be the last rescue.

While the political storm of Graz is slowly building up, the Styrian ÖVP party chairman Klaus RAUSHEIM tried to chase away this estrangement: "This is a Styrian choice and a Styrian result." But the hope of an "anti-Kickl coalition" remains. The political parquet in Austria has wobbled and keeps your breath away, while both federal level and state parliament are putting to a new chapter!