Vienna’s Social Democrats Win Election Overshadowed by Virus
Vienna’s Social Democrats Win Election Overshadowed by Virus
(Bloomberg) --
Vienna’s Social Democrats extended their 75-year stronghold over Austria’s capital on Sunday, winning a vote that was cast in the shadow of surging coronavirus infections.
Mayor Michael Ludwig’s party came in first with 41.7% of the vote, according to projections with about a sixth of the votes counted at 6:00 p.m. in Vienna. The estimate is less certain than usual because the virus triggered an unprecedented demand for mail-in voting, and around 40% of the ballots won’t be counted until Monday or Tuesday.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservatives almost doubled support to 18.7% after a catastrophic outcome 5 years ago. Their Austrian People’s Party wooed nationalist voters who turned away from the Freedom Party, which garnered only about 7.5% after a corruption scandal last year blew up the group. The Greens won 14.6% and the Neos took 8.1%.
The result is unlikely to stimulate changes at the federal level. Even as Kurz’s party fell short of forecasts following a lackluster campaign led by Finance Minister Gernot Bluemel, his strategy to appeal to nationalist voters on migration issues paid dividends.
The Green’s result also looks good enough to support the pragmatic new course struck by its leadership. After being voted out of Austria’s parliament just three years ago, the party is now a junior coalition partner with Austrian conservatives at the federal level and with Social Democrats in the capital.
The end of the campaigning in Vienna, home to almost a quarter of the population, could bring about new pandemic policies. After seeming to get a handle over the illness in late spring, the city has turned into a hotbed for infection, with spread of the disease accelerating since August.
The average 7-day incidence of Covid-19 in Vienna now stands at 155 new cases per 100,000, almost twice the Austrian average of 82. Debates about who is to blame for the spike have turned into bickering between the conservative federal government and the leftist city administration.
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