No KPÖ mayor

“Communism was a totalitarian system”

In the current "TV duel" between Andreas Mölzer and Eva Glawischnig on krone.tv, one of the topics was the mayoral election in Salzburg City, which was won on Sunday by Bernhard Auinger of the SPÖ and not his KPÖ challenger Kay Michael Dankl of the KPÖ+. 

Glawischnig, approvingly: "I think that was a good decision for Salzburg. We would have attracted international attention if this historic city was now governed by communists. Dankl did not manage to distance himself from communism in any strong way during the entire election campaign. He always spoke of democratic communism. But there was no such thing anywhere in the world."

The former leader of the Greens wonders why Dankl didn't run better as "Liste Dankl": "In many discussions, he was always so relaxed about communism and said that we were just something new, that we had come to terms with it all and that we were just democratic communists. But that doesn't exist. It was a totalitarian system that deprived people of their freedoms under duress." That was historically the case.  

Not an exhilarating success for the SPÖ either
Andreas Mölzer doesn't see much positive for SPÖ election winner Bernhard Auinger either: "The trees don't grow into the sky. He now has 62 percent and has clearly beaten his communist opponent. But with a voter turnout of just 45%, that means that only 30,000 of the 112,000 eligible voters voted for the SPÖ lead candidate."

That is not an intoxicating voter mandate either. Mölzer, with a view to federal politics: "The euphoria in which Babler and the others are now lulling themselves is so great and this is the new dawn: please, it's not that great either. Please leave the cow in the barn."