The president’s party maintains a constructive faith, but suffered a massive defeat in the election. A double-digit loss must be dealt with first.
There was shock and sudden silence as the blue bar flashed across the big screen. A little earlier, there was cheering on the turquoise column in the party tent in front of the ÖVP party headquarters in Vienna’s Lichtenfelsgasse: as of 5:30 p.m., the second vision forecast on ORF was 26.2 percent on Sunday – and doing better than expected at the start of the election campaign.
The result of President Karl Nehhammer, which was surprisingly suspended by the electoral party at 6 pm, before the first round of candidates in parliament, has two serious flaws: on the one hand, it is the worst result with a double-digit minus. About twelve percentage points from 2013. On the other hand, the obvious goal of overtaking the FPÖ in the last few meters has failed more clearly than perhaps expected. At the same time, the FPÖ will achieve the best result in its party’s history, and will clearly win the election with 29 percent of the vote. The polls showed a head-to-head race between Nehhammer and Herbert Giggle. It was a start-to-finish win for the Nehammer Challenge.
Celebratory mood with a huge minus
But it was barely noticed in the surrounding atmosphere and in the tent. “I can’t get over your disappointment,” Nehammer said to his supporters, thanking them. Nehamar thanked him with slogans. “But I can give you hope,” he shouted aloud. People will believe “more” in what the ÖVP stands for: “attitude” and “reason”. On this day it is important to “recognize victories and defeats”, namely the FPÖ. But, “the promise we made before the election will be valid after the election as well.” A tie-up with Giggle may have been rejected.
Some of the ÖVP ministers and club boss August Wokinger watched the first program among about a thousand guests in the already packed ÖVP party tent at 4pm. Klaudia Tanner, Norbert Totschnig and Martin Polaschek were present, as were State Secretary Claudia Plakolm and WKO President Harald Mahrer. Former state governor Erwin Broll was also present and in good spirits. “Now we celebrate more,” General Secretary Christian Stocker called the gathering. In fact, the mood among the guests was very relaxed and even better after the Chancellor’s visit.
But in the background, the party leadership was clearly nervous at the start and clearly disappointed at the end. The overwhelming success of the Blues, now on the field, has left many at a loss. “This country is crazy,” was the head-shaking reaction of one top official.
Like Nehammer, General Secretary Stocker, who was in charge of the election campaign with Bernhard Ebner, had already tried to limit the damage: “The race to catch up was still successful,” he said in his first statement on the platform.
And according to the editorial deadline for this magazine, it is still theoretically possible – with a margin of two percentage points – that the ÖVP could still overtake the FPÖ. But it means that the results are clearly against the first trend in the evening-only cities. “Now we’re still celebrating,” Stalker briefed officials.
“Exciting Day”
On election day, in ÖVP ranks, there was still hope that things would actually change. As he voted with his wife and dog in Vienna’s 13th district, Nehhammer appeared relaxed and full of anticipation for election evening. Sunday will be an “exciting day”, the chancellor said in front of the ever-present TV cameras, and it will be about a decision on direction. Conversations with people during the election campaign showed that they have a lot of concerns, even though they have regained a lot of confidence after difficult years.
But when the polls in Vorarlberg closed for the first time in the afternoon, it became clear that a head-to-head race might not work. Minus 15 percentage points and about 22 per cent results suddenly spread through WhatsApp groups. The turquoise end result shouldn’t be too destructive. But even with a small margin, the ÖVP lost very clearly. Many votes in 2019 could have gone to the FPÖ.
The weakness of the SPÖ, which was also evident on Sunday – it stood at 20.4 percent as of 5:30 p.m. – was a possible explanation and justification for the FPÖ’s victory in the ÖVP rounds. “It’s not just our weakness,” said one official. But: “Also for Andreas Popler, who lost many votes to the FPÖ.”
