Battle for votes – EU elections: this procedure makes Schilling tremble

If he were to receive a large number of preferential votes, he would “of course” be available as head of the delegation, Thomas Waitz, second on the list and co-chair of the European Greens, said in the ORF program on Sunday. Hohes Haus”. But he does not want to run an election campaign with preferential votes and does not want to doubt Schilling’s credibility.

Procedure regulated in election regulations
The procedure for preferential voting is regulated in the European Electoral Regulations. Unlike other elections, there is only one constituency in the EU elections. This means that voters can only cast one preference vote. The preferential vote does not apply if multiple candidates are mentioned or if the named candidate belongs to a party other than the marked party.

There is then a limit of five percent of the votes allocated to a party. If a candidate receives this number of preferential votes, he or she is placed first. If multiple people’s preferential votes overcome this hurdle, the ranking will be based on the number of respective preferential votes.

No additional model of the ÖVP
The ÖVP adopted a special model at the last EU elections in 2019. However, there will be no stricter rules for the elections on June 9, a spokesperson confirms. At the time, the ranking of the candidates was based solely on their preferential votes.

115,906 preferential votes for Edtstadler
This led to an election campaign with preferential votes within the ÖVP. Karoline Edtstadler, now European minister and second on the list at the time, ultimately received a total of 115,906 preferential votes in 2019. Only Ursula Stenzel, former ZiB presenter, achieved more with 168,078 when she stood as a candidate for the ÖVP in 1996. In 2019, the then first on the list and current First Vice-President of the European Parliament, Othmar Karas, received slightly fewer preferential votes than Edtstadler, who returned to Austria after less than a year with 103,035.

This left him behind his own result from 2009 (112,954). At the time, he had led a personal election campaign against ex-Interior Minister Ernst Strasser, who had been installed at the helm by then party leader Josef Pröll. Karas no longer runs after disagreements with his party.

In 2019, Andreas Schieder, who is again at the head of the Social Democrats this year, received the most preferential votes for a candidate outside the ÖVP with 72,863. The Green top candidate Werner Kogler (70,821), who did not accept his mandate at the time, FPÖ top candidate Harald Vilimsky (64,525) and NEOS top candidate Claudia Gamon (64,350) had slightly less in 2019. They each achieved the best preferential voting results for their parties.

In 2019, the ÖVP model cost ex-ORF star Wolfram Pirchner (9,359 preferential votes) and Christian Sagartz from Burgenland (17,233) their seats. They were overtaken by the Lower Austrian Peasant Association Alexander Bernhuber (30,338) and the Tyrolean Economic Association Barbara Thaler (38,285), who were behind them.

Memories of the internal FPÖ duel in 2004
However, the legal preferential voting hurdle has only affected the distribution of mandates once: in 2004, Andreas Mölzer, who was in third place, took over the only FPÖ mandate from top candidate Hans Kronberger with 21,980 preferential votes, even though seven percent of the votes the party votes were still needed at that time.