Four weeks before the election

Sulking over polls

The VP renegade Johannes Anzengruber puts up posters at the traffic circle near the DEZ Innsbruck, first row foot-free. In the background, "The new Innsbruck" in orange.(Bild: Meinert Claus)

A few weeks before the municipal council and mayoral elections, the Innsbruck People's Party has a problem that only it can solve. There was already a similar challenge in the 1990s.

Never trust a poll that you have not invented or falsified yourself. This statement is especially true in pre-election times. This also means that, depending on how a poll turns out, whether it is well-disposed towards you or not, it is either considered to be of great significance or it ends up as a flyweight in the circular file next to your desk or, nowadays, in the wastepaper basket of your e-mail program.

Polls put FPÖ in the lead
In January, the "Tiroler Krone" commissioned a survey on the municipal and mayoral elections in Innsbruck. With a sample of 800 participants, which is now the standard for seriousness. The results were quite something. The reunion "Das neue Innsbruck" (consisting of Für Innsbruck, ÖVP and the Seniors' Association) did rather poorly, while the grouping "Ja - Jetzt Innsbruck", which was split off from the ÖVP, did surprisingly well. The Freedom Party was ahead, followed by the Greens.

Polls that do not deliver the "right results" seem to be a thorn in the side of some backbenchers in the Innsbruck ÖVP in particular. So they apparently try to ridicule the results whenever the opportunity arises. Which is of course legitimate. Because - see above - it is all too human that only surveys that mean well for you are valid. Mirror, mirror on the wall

Secession 30 years ago
But perhaps this is precisely the problem with the Innsbruck VP. Namely that it "stood still" at some point. Since then, it has wandered the streets of Innsbruck sulking and out of touch with reality whenever it suffers losses in elections. Perhaps this has been the case since the split in 1994, exactly 30 years ago. Back then, a politically little-known double doctor named Herwig van Staa had had enough of the old ÖVP under Mayor Romuald Niescher.

He founded the "For Innsbruck" list. Yellow was its color at the presentation. They were belittled and ridiculed as "canaries". By election night at the latest, these "birds" were chirping songs of joy after gaining almost 23 percent support. The ÖVP plummeted to 18 percent in free flight. The blacks mourned. "Obervogel" Van Staa held the mayoral chain for eight years - before becoming provincial governor in 2002.

The Innsbruck VP may now have a feeling of déjà vu, as parallels to 1994 are emerging. What Van Staa was then could be Johannes Anzengruber this time with "Yes - Now Innsbruck". Perhaps people will then sulk again instead of finally starting to do less detached politics, instead of questioning themselves without taboos.