Alexander Van der Bellen will remain President of Austria for the next six years. According to projections, the incumbent received more than 56 percent of the votes in Sunday’s election. Despite a large number of absentee voting cards, which will not be counted until this Monday, it is considered certain that he has achieved the required 50 percent plus one vote from the voters. Behind the former Greens chairman, who was also supported by the SPÖ and Neos as well as politicians from the ÖVP, is the FPÖ candidate Walter Rosenkranz, who received a good 18 percent. The other five candidates each received less than ten percent.
Van der Bellen can thus follow the tradition that in Austria a head of state who is running for a second term is confirmed without a second ballot. Compared to previous Federal Presidents, such as his predecessor Heinz Fischer with around 80 percent, Van der Bellen came off rather narrowly. He had already pointed out in advance that this election was difficult to compare with previous ones because never before had so many people applied for the highest office in the state as this time.
Rosencrantz is “very satisfied” with the result
Van der Bellen’s campaign was supported by the Greens, which he chaired for many years. The social-democratic SPÖ, the liberal Neos and individual politicians from the Christian-democratic ÖVP, who did not enter their own candidates, also spoke out in favor of him.
With the exception of Rosencrantz, all other challengers had to do without the support of a parliamentary party. The lawyer Tassilo Wallentin, who is known as a columnist for the “Kronen-Zeitung”, and Dominik Wlazny, head of the beer party, which has only contested elections in Vienna so far, received around eight percent. Gerald Grosz, a former FPÖ official and friend of the late former party leader Jörg Haider, came to around six percent. The chairman of the anti-corona measures party MFG, Michael Brunner, and the shoe manufacturer Heinrich Staudinger received plus/minus two percent.
Rosencrantz was “very satisfied” with his result, although it is below the value currently reported in polls for the right-wing party FPÖ. He referred to the large number of competitors “who are cavorting in the same segment” and assumed that some had only started “to keep the FPÖ small”. He wants to remain in his office as Volksanwalt, a three-person ombudsman for citizens’ complaints.
Wlazny pointed out that without the support of a parliamentary party or a mass media, a respectable result had been achieved and that, above all, the young people had become enthusiastic about politics. Grosz saw a respectable success for himself. The downside for him is that there will be no run-off election. Staudinger attributed his weak result to the low budget. He now hopes for civil society. For MFG boss Brunner it is at least positive that one was able to get one’s own messages among the people. In any case, the party wants to continue.
About 6.4 million Austrians were able to decide on the head of state in the next six years on Sunday. The office of Federal President in Austria is more powerful than the office of the same name in Germany, and not only because it is elected by the people. He appoints the chancellor and can dismiss him and the entire government. By combining these powers, he could dissolve Parliament and force new elections. Presidential cabinets against Parliament are not possible in the long term, but all sorts of chaos could well be caused.
