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ELECTION

Green Party wins election re-run in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt

The Green party has won the re-run of the district election in Vienna’s 2nd district, Leopoldstadt. The SPÖ lost its previous lead and slipped to second place and the right-wing Freedom Party - which requested the repeat election because of “irregularities” - came third.

Green Party wins election re-run in Vienna's Leopoldstadt
Uschi Lichtenegger. Photo: ORF

According to initial projections, which don’t include absentee ballots or the votes of non-Austrian EU citizens, the Greens won around 34 percent of the vote (in the first election in October 2015 they only won 22.15 percent).

The SPÖ slipped to 28.5 percent, down from 38.64 percent. The Freedom Party won 22.6 percent and saw a slight increase in votes compared to 2015, of almost 3 percent. The conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) got just 6.3 percent and the NEOS 5.5 percent.

Voter turnout was substantially lower than in 2015, at just 26.7 percent it was down a massive 36.5 percent.

The Green candidate Uschi Lichtenegger will replace the SPÖ’s Karlheinz Hora as the district leader. The Greens will hold around 20 seats in the district council, the SPÖ 18, the FPÖ 15, and the ÖVP and the NEOS will each have three.

Lichtenegger said her victory was unexpected: “I’m surprised and I am really happy – I think we reached a lot of people with our message of living together in harmony. The Greens had a good campaign and a plan for the district”.

She promised that the Greens will hold to their pledges of providing more quality childcare facilities and protecting green space.

The FPÖ's candidate Wolfgang Seidl, who campaigned on an anti-immigration ticket, said a victory for the Greens is “a disaster for the district” and warned that it would end in “tragedy”.

Political expert Thomas Hofer told Radio Wien that he believed the Greens' success was not down to their campaign but was a reflection of a desire from the voters’ to “prevent the FPÖ gaining power”.

Hofer added that he sees the low voter turnout as a reflection of “election fatigue” after Austria’s trouble-stricken presidential election re-run was again postponed until December.

 

VIENNA

Vienna reveals new plan for how to move away from gas heating

Authorities in Vienna want to replace the city's 600,000 gas heating systems with greener alternatives and have presented a plan for how they will do it.

Vienna reveals new plan for how to move away from gas heating

The “Vienna Heat Plan 2024” was presented this week which outlines a concrete strategy for replacing the city’s 600,000 currently installed gas heating systems with renewable energy alternatives.

Vienna has committed to ending its reliance on fossil fuels for heating and hot water by 2040.

As part of this goal, the capital wants to replace around 600,000 gas heating systems with renewable energy alternatives. On Monday May 8th the city presented the “Vienna Heat Plan 2024”, providing a clear plan for this transition.

The plan considers all buildings in the urban area and identifies where it is possible to expanding district heating, referring to a centralised heating system which efficiently serve multiple buildings.

The goal is to make district heating completely climate-neutral by 2040. Additionally, the plan also identifies areas where alternative solutions may be necessary, reported ORF.

The plan divides areas in three categories 

The areas in Vienna have been categorised into three groups based on demand and local conditions.

The first category include areas where district heating is most suitable.

The second category refers to areas with good potential for local heating networks. These networks can accommodate smaller, localised heating systems that serve buildings located close to each other. Additionally, the third category includes areas where individual climate-neutral heating solutions are needed for single buildings or properties, ensuring necessary adjustment to specific needs of a property.

Additional divisions within these groups have been made, considering factors like existing district heating connections and the possibility of expansion. The city wants to expand the district heating network to cover 1,700 kilometres in the future, according to Vienna.at.

READ ALSO: Austria climate activist aims to take fight to Brussels

Geothermal energy planned to be used in outer districts

The areas selected for local heating networks are mainly situated in the outer districts of the city. In those areas authorities plan to use geothermal energy, heat derived from the Earth’s core. Through the use of heat pumps, the plan is to supply heat to multiple buildings simultaneously, reported ORF.

READ NEXT: Vast Vienna wastewater heat pumps showcase EU climate drive

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