The capital of Tyrol will most likely be governed by a centre-left coalition for the next six years. It doesn’t seem to matter who becomes mayor in the second round of elections in two weeks. In the meantime, no stone remains unturned within the municipal council.
Shock overcome, tears of joy dried: Innsbruck will experience a new beginning, but different from what the bourgeois camp around Florian Tursky dreamed of. His New Innsbruck was virtually wiped out by party rebel Johannes Anzengruber – with the result that it is very likely that the state capital will be governed by a centre-left alliance in the future.
What will this look like? The “Krone” clarifies these and some other open questions about the elections in Innsbruck.
Who has the better cards for the second election?
Both the incumbent Georg Willi and the challenger Johannes Anzengruber consider themselves part of the ‘bourgeois middle’ and are therefore fishing in the same pond. But while Willi can be sure of the support of the left-wing factions, the same applies only to a limited extent to Anzengruber and Neues Innsbruck or FPÖ. Locks must first be filled quickly and thoroughly. However the second election turns out, the most obvious coalition is that of the Greens, JA Anzengruber and SPÖ, who together have 22 of the 40 seats and could be supported in the case of the KPÖ (3), ALI ( 2) and List Fritz (2). That’s 29 out of 40 votes.
How will the city senate be composed?
The committee currently has seven seats, an increase to 8 or 9 is possible, but difficult to arrange in times of tight budgets. In the current constellation, the Greens and Anzengruber would each have two municipal councilors and would already have the majority. The SPÖ is represented by one, Neues Innsbruck and FPÖ by one. It will be exciting to see if they will get tours of the resorts or if they will be there again as expensive strollers but not allowed to have a say. It is still unclear whether the new mayor will again be charged with the same departmental responsibilities as Willi in the period since 2018.
Personnel consequences
The city council is experiencing a dramatic rejuvenation as a result of the election results, thanks to the six newcomers to Willis and Anzengruber’s list. The SPÖ brings four new ones, the KPÖ three, ALI one. New Innsbruck moves in with three newcomers, the FPÖ with four. If we look at it the other way around, only a few of the experienced city council members have survived politically. The small team is led by Rudi Federspiel, who no one in this discipline can match. Which of the new members actually enters the plenary hall also depends on the outcome of the preferential vote. According to city law, this could change the ranking on the list.
Preferential votes
A large number of preferential votes for individual candidates allows them to advance and ‘overtake’ other competitors. This would result in a changed composition of the municipal council group. The preferred emperor in 2018 was Johannes Anzengruber.
SPÖ city party leader Benjamin Plach could hardly believe his luck on election night: When the result was projected on the screens, he immediately started calculating: what majorities will result? After realizing what was now possible, he jumped from one foot to the other for joy: because now everything that had previously failed due to the resistance of the right-wing conservative alliance he had identified is coming to fruition. And that’s a lot.
Innsbruck will change on Sunday due to the shift to the left. Because nothing stands in the way of the project for a traffic-calmed city center, a hobbyhorse of the Greens. Nor anything about the redesign of Bozner-Platz – this can be ‘waved through’ with the new, solid majority. The same applies to the redesign of the forecourt of the Landestheater: bring it on! New housing allocation guidelines: No problem! Will happen in the spirit of SP, Groen and KPÖ!
The most important point will be housing. And the election promises made, which may not be fulfilled, let alone financed. Such as cheaper rental prices. This is where election manifestos undergo the toughest reality check.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.