It is the end of the super election year 2024: Styria will elect a new state parliament on November 24 and Christopher Drexler will have to defend the chair of the state governor for the ÖVP. Also fixed: the local council elections in Styria will take place on March 23, 2025.
There is repeated speculation as to whether Styria will elect a state parliament a few months earlier, as it did in 2019. At that time, ÖVP state governor Hermann Schützenhöfer seized the opportunity and sailed to a stunning election victory (36 percent) in the slipstream of the Sebastian Kurz hype.
This time, the omens are less good for Schützenhöfer’s successor Christopher Drexler: the ÖVP has lost significantly in all recent elections, most recently in the European Parliament. Polls show that the FPÖ is consistently ahead in Styria – despite the financial scandal in Graz and investigations by the public prosecutor’s office against top candidate Mario Kunasek, who categorically denies all allegations.
“We work until the last day”
Drexler has been in office for two years now, according to research he has not yet been able to build up a bonus and he is not yet a ‘father of the country’. Every week is therefore important to him – and according to this logic the legislative period is used to the full. Since Thursday it has been known: on November 24, the Styrians will be asked to vote for the third time this year (after the EU elections in June and the National Council elections in September).
“Our government stands for trusting cooperation in the interest of Styria. We will work until the last day,” Drexler and his SPÖ deputy Anton Lang emphasize in a joint statement. They call on all parties to treat each other fairly.
Concerns about FPÖ mobilization
What is feared within the ÖVP: that the FPÖ under Herbert Kickl will triumph in the National Council elections, but that a coalition will then be forged without the Freedom Party – Drexler himself is a supporter of black and red as in Styria. If the FPÖ election winner were to come away empty-handed at the federal level, this could further mobilize their voters in Styria. Drexler has to live with this risk.
Even though things haven’t been going so well for the SPÖ lately: Anton Lang has a chance to surprisingly cross the finish line first. The affable Leobner hardly insults and doesn’t lean politically out of the window – perhaps a recipe for success in times of political discontent.
According to surveys, the KPÖ can expect gains. It will be difficult for the Greens to defend the good result of 2019 – the year of the ‘Fridays for Future’ movement (12 percent). The NEOS hope to be represented in the state parliament with three instead of two mandates in the future.
Municipal elections on March 23, 2025
The date for the local elections in Styria has already been set: March 23, 2025. This means that the Green Mark returns to the traditional March date. In 2020, the vote had to be postponed to June due to the first Corona lockdown. There will be no elections in the capital Graz, where the legislature for KPÖ mayor Elke Kahr lasts until 2026.
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.
