15 mandataries – among them probably the 14 of the FPÖ – voted invalid. Stephan Pernkopf (ÖVP) and Udo Landbauer (FPÖ) were chosen as LH deputies. They received 37 and 25 of the 56 possible votes.
The approval for Mikl-Leitner was extremely thin. When the head of state succeeded Erwin Proell (ÖVP) on April 19, 2017, she had won 52 out of a possible 56 votes, after the 2018 state election it was 53. She was probably elected on Thursday by the 23 members of her People’s Party, and one more vote was added. A majority was made possible in this way by the invalid votes, most of which may have come from the ranks of the Freedom Party.
Farmer received 25 votes
The approval for FPÖ state party leader Landbauer as LH deputy was slightly higher. He received 25 out of 44 valid votes, twelve invalid votes were cast. Pernkopf got 37 votes and was thus confirmed in office.
On the last Sunday in January, the People’s Party lost its absolute majority in the state parliament and, for the first time, in the state government. The ÖVP now has four representatives in the state government, the FPÖ three and the SPÖ two. The new distribution of mandates in the Lower Austrian state parliament is: ÖVP 23 (previously 29), FPÖ 14 (8), SPÖ 12 (13), Greens 4 (3), NEOS unchanged 3.
Protest rally in front of the country house
The 56 MEPs – 20 of whom are new – were sworn in at the start of the session. State President Karl Wilfing (ÖVP) was confirmed in office with 51 votes. Only 38 mandataries voted for the second president of the state parliament, Gottfried Waldhäusl (FPÖ), who had previously been a member of the asylum council. The third president of the state parliament, Eva Prischl (SPÖ), previously in the Bundesrat, received all 56 possible votes.
After the initial negotiations with the SPÖ were stopped, the ÖVP concluded a working agreement with the FPÖ, which includes a corona fund of 30 million euros. The cooperation presented last Friday has met with heavy criticism, including from parts of the People’s Party.
In the run-up to the constitutive session of the state parliament, a protest rally against the black-blue alliance organized by SOS Mitmensch and other organizations took place in front of the country house. Around 400 to 500 participants demonstrated loudly against “the political dam breach in Lower Austria”.
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Only VP votes? Mikl-Leitner’s complicated choice
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