FPÖ Candidate Survey – Hofburg Election: Prince or Someone Else?

Committee meetings are already scheduled for this week, which will serve to select the candidates. In the elections six years ago, the FPÖ had long tensed up before the then third President of the National Council, Norbert Hofer, was surprisingly sent into the race. The surprise was less that the Burgenlander was chosen than that he accepted the task. Fortunately for him, Hofer only needed to be persuaded after internal officials expressed greater doubts about Ursula Stenzel’s start. At the time, Hofer could not foresee that he would enter into an epic duel with the later incumbent Van der Bellen and would only just miss the Hofburg. This time Hofer gave up on his own initiative.

Van der Bellen already target of blue attacks
The FPÖ has not grown tired of considering the former federal spokesman for the Greens as a system candidate for weeks. It remains unclear who has been chosen to spearhead the campaign. It would likely appeal to party leader Herbert Kickl, who is not as close to the president after he was fired from his position as interior secretary. On the other hand, the chances of success would probably not be very high.

In recent weeks, the idea arose that the FPÖ, which normally does not have such a large number of women, could nominate a female candidate. The lawyer Fürst is the most likely variant. The 53-year-old from Upper Austria has been a member of the National Council since 2017 and the PVV likes to speak as a speaker in important plenary debates, but also for TV debates. She is also a member of the current U-Committee.

While the second prominent top liberal politician Dagmar Belakowitsch likes to appear sober, loud and argumentative, Fürst is more or less the opposite. The lawyer’s tone is quite calm and she appears emphatically polite to friendly. In terms of content, the mother of two, of course, does not deviate in any way from the liberal views.

Wert Hofers difficult to reach
Whoever is ultimately chosen by the committees will not find it easy to achieve the record values ​​set by Hofer. In the first round, the Liberal candidate received more than 35 percent as the clearly strongest voter, in the first, repeated second round, he came to 49.7 percent and in the second, ultimately decisive, still 46.2 percent.