Anyone who is currently walking or driving through Vienna will inevitably notice the election posters of the Lower Austrian People’s Party. Not only at the city exits and entrances, but also in the middle of the metropolis where there are no elections. None of the other parliamentary groups represented in the Lower Austrian state parliament does that. Rather, they content themselves with campaigning for votes in front of the city entrances, but they keep to the state borders fairly precisely.
Compared to ORF.at it says: “Why should we?” (SPÖ), “We put up posters where there is election” (FPÖ). Or it is pointed out that the focus is on the area around Vienna (Greens and NEOS).
ÖVP Lower Austria press spokesman Günther Haslauer explains the election advertising in another federal state with the fact that “around 200,000 Lower Austrians commute to Vienna every day”, many would regard Lower Austria and Vienna as “one living space”. That’s why you don’t just put up posters, you also advertise in Viennese media and do distribution campaigns at Viennese train stations.
question of money
However, all other parties emphasize in unison that they simply do not have the financial means to advertise in Vienna. In this context, everyone recalls that the ÖVP rejected the proposal of the other parties to halve the upper limit for campaign spending to three million euros.
The currently permitted six million euros are completely disproportionate, given the upper limit of seven million euros that applies to federal elections. And everyone showed more or less direct doubts that the ÖVP would even comply with the upper limit of six million euros. Haslauer emphasized that the upper limit corresponds to that in Vienna and is observed. For his part, he points out that the other parties had rejected the ÖVP’s proposal to only allow election advertising in Austrian media, but not in US social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, to support the domestic market.
Stair joke with arrangement
When asked whether it wasn’t tantamount to a joke that the party, which again and again likes to portray Vienna as an enemy, is also holding its state election campaign in the middle of this city, political scientist Peter Filzmaier emphasizes that this applies above all to the ÖVP federal party. The Lower Austrian People’s Party, on the other hand, has always understood how to come to terms with Vienna – if necessary with “zero scruples” also towards the federal party.
“Match in and around Vienna”
At the same time, Filzmaier confirms that it is the incomparably greater financial power of the ÖVP that allows it to also advertise in Vienna. NEOS and the Greens should actually advertise heavily in Vienna and the surrounding area, but they simply lack the money.
At first glance, it may seem strange to many when you come across posters like “Our Governor” in a city whose governor is Michael Ludwig. In terms of electoral tactics, according to Filzmaier, this certainly makes sense. Because the “match in and around Vienna, i.e. the commuter belt, is the most important battleground”, the name adopted from US election campaigns for regions that are particularly important for the outcome of the election.
There has been one important change since the last election: Second home residents – mostly Viennese who also have a house or an apartment in Lower Austria – are no longer allowed to vote this time. This option was abolished because of the sometimes suspiciously swelling electoral lists before elections. This means that around 100,000 votes are lost, some of which were bitterly fought over. Nevertheless, around 400,000 people are eligible to vote in the communities around Vienna – which is a big chunk with a total of 1.3 million, according to Filzmaier.
proportional government
Alongside Upper Austria, Lower Austria is now the only federal state in which the proportional government model still exists. Above a certain size, each party is automatically entitled to one or more state councillors. In Lower Austria, this limit is just under ten percent.
The “Absolute” that it’s all about
Experts consider it unlikely that Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) will be able to hold the absolute majority of seats in the state parliament, given the general weakness of the ÖVP in polls and the allegations of corruption. That was already a surprise when she first appeared in 2018. According to Filzmaier, keeping the “absolute” in the state government is the actual ÖVP election goal. The ÖVP currently holds six out of nine seats there, two for the SPÖ and one for the FPÖ.
Greens and NEOS “important opponents”
And this is where Vienna and the surrounding area come into play: because the ÖVP could afford to lose a provincial council to the Freedom Party, according to Filzmaier. With 5: 4 she would still have the say. But in any case, from the point of view of the People’s Party, it is important to prevent the Greens or NEOS from becoming so strong that the ÖVP has to give up a seat in the state government to the Greens or NEOS.
Therefore, a good performance of the ÖVP in the commuter belt is “doubly important”. For a long time, the match here – with the exception of the south-east, where the SPÖ is traditionally strong – was People’s Party versus the Greens. Now NEOS has also been added.
In this region, the electorate is significantly younger and more urban compared to the rest of the country. And there is an above-average number of swing voters here. According to the political scientist, the Greens and NEOS are “important opponents in the commuter belt, even if they have a relatively small share of the vote”. The ÖVP state organization apparently also reaches more people here than the federal party. And like the other parties, the ÖVP cannot afford to forgo even a few potential votes.
