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Austria’s SPÖ party announces Babler as leader after vote mix-up

Austria's biggest opposition party, the centre-left SPÖ confirmed Andreas Babler as its new chairman on Monday after initially announcing Hans Peter Doskozil had won the race to lead the party.

Published: 5 June 2023 16:35 CEST
Austria's SPÖ party announces Babler as leader after vote mix-up
SPÖ leader Andreas Babler. ((c) Andreas Babler)

Austria’s centre-left SPÖ party backtracked on their announcement that Burgenland governor Hans Peter Doskozil would be their new chairman and instead, announced on Monday that Andreas Babler, a mayor in Lower Austria was the new party leader.

Head of the election commission Michaela Grubesa said that “due to a technical error, the votes were assigned incorrectly at the party conference.”

Hans Peter Doskozil received 280 votes (46.51 per cent), while Andreas Babler got 317 votes (52.66 per cent), the SPÖ said.

“Andreas Babler was thus elected the new party chairman by the extraordinary federal party conference”, it added.

On Saturday, the SPÖ initially announced Burgenland governor Hans Peter Doskozil as its new head. The governor went to give several interviews as the party leader over the weekend and was set to disclose his new team.

Austrian Media said an error occurred when transferring the handwritten ballots to an Excel list. ORF journalist Martin Thür was the first to notice that the ballot numbers were not adding up. An SPÖ statement had said there were 596 valid votes, 316 for Doskozil and 279 for Babler. However, that would add up to 595. 

The “missing vote” prompted a complete recount and result change. The SPÖ said a new congress and vote would not be called and would be “unnecessary”, according to Grubesa. 

In a statement, Doskozil said he accepted the new results and would work with the party and with Babler and close his “chapter” of federal politics. Meanwhile, Babler said that the mistake was “painful” for all those involved and he wants to work on the “complete comeback” of the SPÖ. 

Babler added the voting commission would review the results once again so that there are “no question marks” regarding the elections.

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POLITICS

Austrian far-right radical Sellner wins German ban battle

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner on Friday won a legal battle against an entry ban imposed by Germany following his meeting with the far-right AfD that sparked an uproar in the country.

Published: 1 June 2024 08:57 CEST
Austrian far-right radical Sellner wins German ban battle

Sellner had triggered outrage in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

The city of Potsdam subsequently imposed a ban on Sellner entering Germany.

But the administrative court in Brandenburg state on Friday found in favour of Sellner’s appeal against the prohibition.

READ ALSO: Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

“A real and sufficiently serious threat to public order and public security… was not demonstrated” by the authorities which had initiated the ban, said the court in a statement.

Welcoming the ruling, Sellner wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he “will return to Germany soon and will push more and louder than ever on remigration and deislamisation”.

Sellner’s Identitarian Movement espouses the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Who is Austria’s far right figure head banned across Europe?

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