The city of Salzburg is once once more deeply red: in the mayoral and municipal council elections, an initial trend calculation shows a double victory for the SPÖ ahead of the KPÖ Plus. The ÖVP crashed massively following its unique high five years ago, but remains ahead of the FPÖ and the green citizens’ list. According to this trend, in the mayoral election there will be a runoff between Deputy Mayor Bernhard Auinger from the SPÖ and KPÖ-Plus councilor Kay-Michael Dankl.
With a count rate of around 45 percent, the SPÖ was at just under 27.5 percent, which means a loss of a good 2 percentage points. The KPÖ Plus is around 25 percent, an increase of 21 percentage points. The ÖVP halved from almost 37 to around 18 percent, the FPÖ gained around three percentage points to 12 percent, and the Greens lost two points to 11 percent. NEOS and Liste SALZ have to worry regarding getting back into the city parliament; the MFG does not play a significant role.
Video article: The duel for the mayor’s chair
Red-dark red mayoral duel
In the mayoral race, a red-dark red duel is looming between deputy mayor Bernhard Auinger (SPÖ) and KPÖ-Plus local councilor Kay-Michael Dankl. With 35 percent of the votes counted (excluding postal votes, which should only be included in the result around 10 p.m.), the Social Democrat was with 31 percent, just ahead of Dankl with 28 percent. ÖVP candidate Florian Kreibich followed in third place with 20 percent, followed by FPÖ candidate Paul Dürnberger with just under 10 percent.
TV analysis by OÖN political leader Wolfgang Braun:
First reactions
The KPÖ federal party was pleased with the success that was apparent in the local council elections in Salzburg City. The federal spokesman for the KPÖ and top candidate for the National Council election, Tobias Schweiger, sees a thematic tailwind for the current election year. In Salzburg on Sunday there was a runoff election between Kay-Michael Dankl (KPÖ plus) and Bernhard Auinger (SPÖ) for the mayor’s chair.
“With a strengthened KPÖ, important issues such as affordable housing will once once more become a key issue,” said Schweiger. The KPÖ chairman Günther Hopfgartner, who is running as the top candidate in the EU elections, congratulated the members “who made this strengthening result possible”.
