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Parties analyse Vienna election results

Political parties in Vienna are analysing the results of Sunday’s state election - which saw the Social Democrats (SPÖ) retain power in their traditional fiefdom and the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) post its best-ever result in the capital.

Published: 12 October 2015 15:21 CEST

Parties analyse Vienna election results

Vienna mayor Michael Häupl speaking on Sunday evening. Photo: ORF

The SPÖ has ruled out a coalition partnership with the FPÖ – and will be discussing whether to continue in partnership with the Greens, or form a coalition with the ÖVP, which saw its score fall 5.3 points to 8.7 percent, below 10 percent for the first time.

The ÖVP (known as the 'Black' party) was in fourth place behind the Greens on 11.1 percent. The head of Vienna's Greens, Maria Vassilakou, has said she will not step down despite the party scoring 1.99 percentage points less than in 2010.

The final results may not be known until Tuesday as 160,000 postal votes are still being counted.

Fifteen years after the FPÖ stunned Europe by entering the federal government under the late Jörg Haider, the populist party won 31 percent of the vote in the city state, preliminary results showed.

Under Heinz-Christian Strache’s leadership the party gained 5.3 percentage points compared to the last election in Vienna in 2010, when their score soared 11 percentage points.

In Upper Austrian state elections last month the FPÖ gained 15.1 percentage points, and in Styrian state elections earlier this year 16.1 percent. A major issue for voters has been the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees and a rise in the number of asylum claims.

The SPÖ, which has ruled ‘Red Vienna’ uninterrupted since 1945, scored 39.4 percent, down 4.9 points, adding to a similar drop in support in 2010.

The election results look set to change the city’s political landscape. Excluding postal votes, the FPÖ came first in municipal elections in two Vienna districts for the first time – Floridsdorf and Simmering.

From Swexit to Frexit: How Europe's far-right parties have ditched plans to leave EU

Whereas plans to leave the bloc took centre stage at the last European polls in 2019, far-right parties have shifted their focus to issues such as immigration as they seek mainstream votes.

“Quickly a lot of far-right parties abandoned their firing positions and their radical discourse aimed at leaving the European Union, even if these parties remain eurosceptic,” Thierry Chopin, a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges told AFP.

Britain, which formally left the EU in early 2020 following the 2016 Brexit referendum, remains the only country to have left so far.

Here is a snapshot:

No Nexit

The Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) led by Geert Wilders won a stunning victory in Dutch national elections last November and polls indicate it will likely top the European vote in the Netherlands.

While the manifesto for the November election stated clearly: “the PVV wants a binding referendum on Nexit” – the Netherlands leaving the EU – such a pledge is absent from the European manifesto.

For more coverage of the 2024 European Elections click here.

The European manifesto is still fiercely eurosceptic, stressing: “No European superstate for us… we will work hard to change the Union from within.”

The PVV, which failed to win a single seat in 2019 European Parliament elections, called for an end to the “expansion of unelected eurocrats in Brussels” and took aim at a “veritable tsunami” of EU environmental regulations.

No Frexit either

Leaders of France’s National Rally (RN) which is also leading the polls in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron, have also explicitly dismissed talk they could ape Britain’s departure when unveiling the party manifesto in March.

“Our Macronist opponents accuse us… of being in favour of a Frexit, of wanting to take power so as to leave the EU,” party leader Jordan Bardella said.

But citing EU nations where the RN’s ideological stablemates are scoring political wins or in power, he added: “You don’t leave the table when you’re about to win the game.”

READ ALSO: What’s at stake in the 2024 European parliament elections?

Bardella, 28, who took over the party leadership from Marine Le Pen in 2021, is one of France’s most popular politicians.

The June poll is seen as a key milestone ahead of France’s next presidential election in 2027, when Le Pen, who lead’s RN’s MPs, is expected to mount a fourth bid for the top job.

Dexit, maybe later

The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, said in January 2024 that the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum was an example to follow for the EU’s most populous country.

Weidel said the party, currently Germany’s second most popular, wanted to reform EU institutions to curb the power of the European Commission and address what she saw as a democratic deficit.

But if the changes sought by the AfD could not be realised, “we could have a referendum on ‘Dexit’ – a German exit from the EU”, she said.

The AfD which has recently seen a significant drop in support as it contends with various controversies, had previously downgraded a “Dexit” scenario to a “last resort”.

READ ALSO: ‘Wake-up call’: Far-right parties set to make huge gains in 2024 EU elections

Fixit, Swexit, Polexit…

Elsewhere the eurosceptic Finns Party, which appeals overwhelmingly to male voters, sees “Fixit” as a long-term goal.

The Sweden Democrats (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson and leading MEP Charlie Weimers said in February in a press op ed that “Sweden is prepared to leave as a last resort”.

Once in favour of a “Swexit”, the party, which props up the government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in 2019 abandoned the idea of leaving the EU due to a lack of public support.

In November 2023 thousands of far-right supporters in the Polish capital Warsaw called for a “Polexit”.

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