Strongholds & Co. – The (major) surprises of the state elections

Above all, the FPÖ was able to take advantage of the weakness of the top dog SPÖ. In eleven municipalities, the blue overtook the red – in Upper Carinthia practically no stone was left unturned.

In Stall, SPÖ has halved, FPÖ has doubled
In Stall, for example, there was the greatest blue success with plus 24.25 percentage points, while the SPÖ lost 23.11 percentage points. In his hometown of Mühldorf, top candidate Erwin Angerer – also mayor there – even has the absolute top with 56 percent.

ÖVP took advantage of the moment
But against all odds, the ÖVP also made good progress, taking first place in five municipalities. In Glödnitz, for example, red and blue shared first place in 2018, but now the SPÖ has even dropped to third place, while the ÖVP is now proud of first place with a plus of 7.99 percentage points and a result of 31.49 percent smiles.

In Metnitz, Kappel – the birthplace of Martin Gruber – and Eberstein, the ÖVP took advantage of the moment. And in Griffen, the Blacks managed to keep their losses under control – so the SPÖ slipped past them into second place.

And what about the other parties?
The Neos can look forward to 8.19 percent in Krumpendorf, the Greens in Zell at over 14.8 percent and the Carinthian team is in third place with 24 percent in Gerhard Köfer’s mayoral municipality of Spittal, just behind red and blue. The other minor parties failed to convince anywhere.

Fallen and new strongholds in Lower Carinthia
The Carinthian general trend also continued in the electoral districts in Lower Carinthia. The SPÖ suffered heavy losses, while the ÖVP celebrated almost everywhere and Team Kärnten managed to double its share of the vote. Even in Klagenfurt, Kaiser’s hometown, the SPÖ fell by more than ten percentage points – to 43.16% – only the Carinthia team was able to make strong gains.

Zell is simply different: in 2018, the small bilingual community on the northern edge of the Karawanken was the stronghold of three parties. But only the Greens could achieve something there this year with 14.18% (+4.4% points) – significantly more than in Ludmannsdorf (8.55%), the home community of top candidate Olga Voglauer.

For the SPÖ it was a loss of 9.55 percentage points and the NEOS even lost three quarters of their voters. The fact that the SP in Zell achieved its best result of all municipalities with 53.3 percent is a sign of the disastrous election night. The Carinthian team received almost eight percentage points more votes than in 2018, receiving 10.02 percent of the vote.

Great acquisitions for the Carinthian team
In St. Georgen im Lavanttal, the Carinthian team was able to more than double and overtake the FPÖ – it was just not enough for first place. The party even beat the result in Spittal. The success can also be attributed to Karl Markut, who, like Köfer, used to be in the SPÖ – he was replaced as SPÖ club chairman by Peter Kaiser. In the municipal elections, the team did not come close to 41%.

Mayors were also punished by the party leadership
In some communities, it is likely to bang in the offices – not all local emperors could convince. In Lurnfeld, the SPÖ in particular had a hard time: in 2018 the party with the most votes at a respectable distance, this time this title went to the PVV, which won 38.3 percent.

In Bad Kleinkirchheim, too, the result of the municipal elections was more or less reversed: the FPÖ – which has a strong local emperor in Matthias Krenn – lost seven votes, which is a minus of at least six percentage points thanks to election arithmetic.

For the ÖVP, who are generally accustomed to success in the Lesachtal, there was a slight setback in the black stronghold and, contrary to the national trend, a loss of 1.46 percentage points. County councilor Sebastian Schuschnig is happy about a “landslide” in his hometown of Steindorf – the ÖVP climbed from 8.75 to 20.42 percent. In Heiligenblut Schwarz rose by 11.6 percentage points, in Weißensee they are in good shape with 40.4 percent under Vice Mayor Karoline Turnschek.

In Villach, the SPÖ got off with a black eye
And speaking of the state trend: Feld am See is one of the few municipalities with a red win – at least 29 votes. In Villach, too, the SPÖ finally got away with a black eye. Mayor Günther Albel: “Losses are always painful, but in the end it will be the second best result of the past 25 years.”