After severe storms, many parts of Lower Austria are being cleaned up. But not only will the floods leave lasting marks on entire cities, it will also change the last days of the election campaign. “Finding the right tone in the face of this disaster and still campaigning is very challenging for all parties,” says political scientist Kathryn Brabrodnik in an interview with “Lower Austria Today”.
According to Praprotnik, the parties are judged “exactly” by their behavior in this crisis. While asylum and migration were the main topics of the election campaign until a few weeks ago, the topic has now “changed dramatically”. “The Greens have the advantage here that they can talk about their favorite topic. In this situation, the ruling parties try to take advantage of the situation to position themselves as crisis managers.
Attention floods
After the flood the demands of the parties were very different. Interior Minister Gerhard Garner, the main candidate on the ÖVP state list, has supported increasing the federal government’s disaster fund to one billion euros. Criticism of the disaster fund came from FPÖ general secretary and third person on the state list, Christian Hafeneker. He demanded a legal right to immediate payment of disaster relief.
In relation to the flood, the SPÖ’s Rudolf Silvan called for a legal right to exempt volunteers. In addition to more funding for such disasters, Nicholas Scherrock called for the sealing off of low-lying soil from NEOS. Elisabeth Götze (Green Party) recognized this. He again supported the EU reform bill. More about the contents of the debate under the Austria debate under Floods (September 20, 2024, noe.ORF.at).
Impact on election campaign
According to Praprotnik, extreme weather events can lead to changes in the voter market. But with the floods so close to the election, “I don’t expect such a big effect now,” says the political scientist.
Election 24: Lower Austria Debate on National Council Elections
In cooperation with the Niederösterreichische Nachrichten (NÖN) the big Lower Austria debate on the National Council election, the leading lists of all parties represented in the state parliament are invited to the debate in the ORF-NÖ-Funkhaus. Questions are asked by ORF NÖ deputy editor-in-chief Claudia Schubert and NÖN editor-in-chief Walter Farnberger.
Again, the representatives of the parties tried to direct the discussion towards their issues. Government parties in particular “tried to put their own balance sheets back in the window. Because government parties are evaluated not only for their future plans, but also for what they have done in the past,” analyzes Prabrodnik.
Objectivity in discussions
According to Brabrodnik, it is still impossible to say who is more likely to form a coalition after the election, but there are overlaps. A certain objectivity was also noticeable in all topics, and discussion participants pointed out similarities among themselves. “Of course, after Election Day, coalition talks will be necessary, and there must be bridges here that we can cross together after the election,” Brabrodnik says.
