It will take just under two weeks until there is certainty: on March 24th it will be decided whether SP candidate Bernhard Auinger or the communist Kay-Michael Dankl will be the new mayor of Salzburg. The SP deputy mayor achieved 29.9 percent in the direct election on Sunday (all results without voting cards) and ended up just ahead of his KPÖ competitor Dankl, who received 28 percent.
Both began campaigning for themselves on election night. “I am the broader offer,” said Auinger. He stands for a policy of consensus and sought approval for the runoff election. Auinger had already made it to the runoff elections in 2017 and 2019 – and failed each time. For this election he had announced that he would leave politics if he did not make it to the second round.
Video article: Red-red duel for the mayor
“Nice tailwind”
Dankl was happy regarding the “nice tailwind” for the KPÖ in Salzburg. The charismatic 35-year-old was confident that he might win the race for mayor. “I also ran for the people of Salzburg who are not being heard,” he said. He wanted to give them a voice. He also knows of former VP voters who voted for the KPÖ this time. If he wins the race, the second state capital following Graz would be communist.
Video interviews with the candidates: Salzburg election: This is what the candidates say
The SPÖ and KPÖ plus together have half of the 40 mandates in the local council. According to the early count, the SPÖ received 26.2 percent (minus 0.9 percentage points), meaning it was able to retain its eleven mandates. The KPÖ was the big winner of the day: it received 23.3 percent of the vote, an increase of 19.5 percentage points. One became nine mandates.
TV analysis with OÖN political leader Wolfgang Braun:
Defeat for the ÖVP
The ÖVP, however, suffered a massive defeat. In 2019 she still benefited from the positive effect for Sebastian Kurz. VP Mayor Harald Preuner did not take part once more for health reasons, among other things. Instead, VP Vice Mayor Florian Kreibich took part in the election. As a candidate for mayor, he only received 21 percent. The People’s Party got 20.3 percent, an impressive minus of 16.5 percent. In the local council it was halved from 16 to eight mandates. Kreibich made no move to resign. He said on Sunday evening that he had a lot of fun with the election campaign.
After the gains in the state elections, the Freedom Party’s result in the state capital was rather modest in comparison. They came to 11.8 percent (plus three percentage points). Your top candidate Paul Dürnberger achieved almost ten percent.
The Greens also received 11.8 percent in the local council. Neos and the SALZ list just managed to get into the city parliament.
Author
Annette Gantner
Internal politics editor
Annette Gantner
