Election campaign in Vösendorf

Why 13 is a really unlucky number for the SPÖ

Candidate number 13 is now causing headaches for the Red Party in Vösendorf. He has to stand trial next Thursday. And just three and a half weeks before the early municipal elections. How the SPÖ wants to limit the damage . . . 

Superstition should have no place in politics. But the fact that the SPÖ's candidate number 13 is standing in the final sprint for the early municipal elections on May 5 is a special omen. The former local red party chairman and now future local councillor Wolfgang Gratzer will have to face a fraud trial at the district court in Mödling next Thursday, April 11.

Wolfgang Gratzer wanted to return to the Vösendorf town hall as an SPÖ municipal councillor. The party no longer wants that.(Bild: Patrick Huber, SPÖ Vösendorf, Krone KREATIV)

A red ball in his court
Behind the scenes, the Social Democrats want to shake off the clog on their leg - which, however, is not so easy given that the candidates have already been chosen. Rumor has it that Gratzer is to be "persuaded" not to accept his mandate if the worst comes to the worst.

Beer and pithy slogans: FPÖ top candidate Kerstin Liebl made it clear who she does not want to enter into a coalition with after the municipal elections.(Bild: FPÖ)

"Branch office of the public prosecutor's office"
Meanwhile, the other parties are also starting the final stages of the election campaign. The FPÖ kicked off the campaign with beer and pithy remarks. "It is a scandal in a class of its own that the public prosecutor's office can now open a branch office in Vösendorf," raged district chairman and state councillor Christoph Luisser. The Blue Party told the SPÖ that they should "immediately withdraw" Wolfgang Gratzer's candidacy. The Freedom Party also took aim at the ÖVP: "Anyone who reaches into the coffers cannot be a partner," said top candidate Kerstin Liebl, ruling out a coalition with the ÖVP. She alluded to the "corrected" invoice with which Mayor Hannes Koza had attempted to pass on private legal costs to the municipality. As reported, the head of the municipality escaped a court case through a diversion.

We have real female power. Out of 66 candidates, 40 are women. The other parties can't compete with that.

Hannes Koza, Spitzenkandidat der ÖVP

Keeping young people in the village
Koza himself does not want to comment on the forthcoming court hearing of the former red local party leader. He prefers to talk about the ÖVP candidates. The party is going into the election with 66 candidates for a seat in the town hall, 40 of whom are women. The mayor presented his program to 250 supporters on Friday. His most important plans: Rezoning building land to grassland, funding for public transport tickets, housing for young people. He wants to achieve the latter by renovating an old municipal building and offering a 3000 euro bonus for the first apartment owned. "This is how we want to keep young people in Vösendorf," emphasizes Koza.