Election of the Weekend: Vienna

We’ve got a two national elections on deck for Monday, but until then we’ll have to make do with Vienna. On Sunday, Vienna will elect a new Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna, the 100 seat state parliamentary body of the state of Vienna, which is also the city of Vienna, where approximately 2 million of Austria’s 9 million citizens reside. It’s a semi-open list proportional representation election, so seats will closely track percentages.

Vienna’s politics is strikingly different from, and squarely to the left of, the rest of Austria, so a repeat of the 2024 Freedom Party victory (in terms of winning the most seats; they’re not part of the government) we saw nationwide last year is unthinkable. However, their performance has varied significantly; in 2020 they only got 7% in Vienna, but in 2015 they cleared 30% and were the second-largest party. Polling suggests this election will give them a result closer to 2015 than 2020, as they’re polling in second at over 20%, with the Social Democrats, who have won every election in Vienna since WWII, hovering just below 40%. The remainder of the electorate is split roughly evenly between the Greens, the legacy center-right Christian Democrats, and NEOS liberal/moderate libertarian-type party, with what appears to be a slight edge to the Greens in the race for 3rd place.

In other words, the FPO’s support level is worth watching, for those concerned with the rise of right populism in Europe, but Sunday’s result is unlikely to change Vienna’s governance in any significant way. The substantive question for the composition of the next government will be whether the Social Democrats will have their pick of the three smaller parties to form a governing coalition, or whether they’ll have to work with two of them. In 2020, they had their pick and went with NEOS.

The only English-language substantive coverage of this election I’ve found is in the Jerusalem Post, which is unsurprisingly focused on the role concerns about rising antisemitism have played in the election. I don’t know that it’s worthy of recommendation, but if you don’t read German and want more on this election, I don’t have anything else to recommend in its place. Any readers with more information about this election are encouraged to share it in comments.