Tyrol’s ÖVP chairman and top candidate Anton Mattle wants to form a state government despite a drop of almost ten percentage points. They started a “race to catch up” and that ultimately worked, Mattle told journalists. The state party started the election campaign with 29 percent, said Mattle. It was possible to bring voters back, although: “We lost, we are aware of that.” But everything will be done to regain this trust. He will not ask the question of confidence on Monday in the ÖVP party executive.
As the party with the most votes, the ÖVP continues to “claim leadership”, emphasized the 59-year-old. Exploratory talks will begin in the coming days, Mattle said. In terms of coalitions, the ÖVP state party chairman did not want to commit himself. He was “still open” in this regard.
Mattle excludes coalition with FPÖ
In any case, there will be no two-party coalition with the FPÖ, Mattle repeated his announcement from the election campaign. He would also have the confidence to “create a three-party coalition”, as he had also explained before the election: “Now we will find out in the exploratory talks how well things work.” As things stand at present, only the ÖVP can do it -Coalitions of two, namely with SPÖ or FPÖ.
Anton Mattle (ÖVP) claims leadership
Mattle thanks the voters for their trust and emphasizes that they have twice as many mandates as the second and third place winners. The People’s Party thus makes the claim to leadership and the claim to provide the governor. Mattle does not want to answer the question of whether he is aiming for a coalition with the SPÖ.
ÖVP General Secretary Christian Stocker was also relieved that the “predicted total crash” had not materialized. In the ORF election special, he referred to first place and the clear distance to the other parties.
FPÖ close to historically best result in Tyrol
Tyrol’s FPÖ chairman and top candidate Markus Abwerzger was “very satisfied” with the preliminary election result of the Freedom Party. “The FPÖ is back,” said Abwerzger. At the beginning of the year, polls were still around 13 percent, he recalled. The FPÖ top candidate still saw chances of surpassing 19 percent and perhaps getting the best result in the history of the Tyrolean FPÖ. In 1999, this was 19.6 percent.
Despite Mattle’s cancellation, Abwerzger also expressed his desire to remain in the coalition game: “We are reaching out and are ready to talk to everyone.”
The FPÖ MP Christian Hafenecker called on the ÖVP and the Greens to also resign at the federal level. FPÖ General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz was “very satisfied”, he was particularly pleased with second place: “We have never done that in Tyrol before.” Despite the ÖVP rejection, Schnedlitz saw the chance for free government participation as “a gap open “.
SPÖ just behind FPÖ
SPÖ top candidate Georg Dornauer’s wish to “clearly have a two” before the red result was not fulfilled either, nor was the hope of finishing second in the course of the evening and thus overtaking the FPÖ. Dornauer addressed the first congratulations to the ÖVP. The blacks now have the “democratically legitimized mandate to form a government,” said Dornauer. Therefore he will not pick up the phone in the evening and contact the ÖVP regarding possible government cooperation.
Christoph Hofinger on possible coalition variants
SPÖ federal manager Christian Deutsch attributed the losses of the ÖVP and the Greens to “arrogance and pride”. It shows that no stone will be left unturned in Tyrol. “Black-Green is deselected,” said Deutsch. While black-green had run into a total failure, the red result was a “nice success in the knowledge that Tyrol is difficult terrain for the SPÖ”.
List Fritz overtakes the Greens
The Fritz list also made gains, taking fourth place ahead of the Greens following two mixed elections. She was “overwhelmed” and “grateful,” said top candidate Andrea Haselwanter-Schneider. It’s a “great result”.
The Greens, previously in the coalition with the ÖVP, are slipping back into one-size-fits-all. Greens lead candidate Gebi Mair said he didn’t want to “gloss over” his party’s results. It is clear that black-green is history, and one is not the first point of contact in coalition talks. However, if probes by other parties did not bring any results, one would be available for talks.
NEOS had to tremble to move in
Dominik Oberhofer from NEOS was disappointed in an initial reaction, he would have expected more. For the SPÖ, the result was not a “major government order”, Oberhofer did not want to take himself out of the game as a coalition partner. Oberhofer attributed the weak gains to the polls. He has the impression that surveys “are also used to create atmosphere”.
NEOS party leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger was open to a three-party coalition in Tyrol. However, the ball is in the hands of the ÖVP. Meinl-Reisinger was convinced that top candidate Dominik Oberhofer would also hold talks with ÖVP boss Anton Mattle. However, she described the Tyrolean result as a “clear plus”. However, she was curious to see what the Tyrol result would mean for the governing parties at federal level. “The ÖVP and the Greens are not going out strengthened today,” said Meinl-Reisinger.
The vaccination-critical list MFG, the KPÖ and the list Mach mit had no chance of getting in.