FPÖ and communists in state elections in Salzburg with significant gains
The FPÖ top candidate Marlene Svazek: The Freedom Party is a winner of the state elections
Source: dpa/Helmut Fohringer
In the Austrian state of Salzburg, citizens have elected a new state parliament. The political fringes made gains: the FPÖ took second place behind the ÖVP. For the first time since 1945, the communists are back in parliament.
BAccording to projections, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the Communists (KPÖ) made significant gains in the state elections in the Austrian state of Salzburg. The FPÖ increased by 7 percentage points to 26 percent. She caught up with Prime Minister Wilfried Haslauer’s conservative ÖVP. The ÖVP can probably secure the top spot, but slipped by 7 percentage points to under 31 percent according to projections.
The communists (KPÖ), who are close to the citizens, pull according to projections with more than 11 percent of the votes for the first time since 1945 in the Salzburg state parliament. The KPÖ candidates had announced that they would donate part of their politician salaries in this case. The result is a “warning signal to the established parties” that they have to worry about high housing costs and poverty, said lead candidate Kay-Michael Dankl.
Salzburg is one of the federal states with the highest cost of living, but wages are below the Austrian average. The topics of inflation and housing dominated the election campaign.
The FPÖ also focused on these problem areas and thus overtook the social democratic SPÖ, which ended up in third place with around 18 percent (minus 2 percentage points). FPÖ top candidate Marlene Svazek was more moderate in the area of migration policy than her federal party.
Liberal neos fail with re-entry
So far, the ÖVP has ruled in Salzburger Land with a coalition of Greens and the liberal Neos. The two coalition partners lost votes, the Neos were even thrown out of the state parliament. Country chief Wilfried Haslauer described the result as “very painful”. Before the election, he had signaled that he had no sympathy for the FPÖ, but he did not rule out cooperation with the right on Sunday.
Svazek presented the FPÖ with a claim to co-government: “If you respect the will of the voters, then the only conclusion can only be that you are having serious talks with the Freedom Party about a coalition in this federal state,” she said.
The election is considered the third mood test for federal politics this year. In elections in Lower Austria and Carinthia in January, the FPÖ won around a quarter of the votes. In nationwide opinion polls, the right-wing party has been in first place since the beginning of the year, ahead of the SPÖ and the Chancellor’s Party ÖVP.