Unofficial politics

Election polls, & weather apps & whitewashing

LH Anton Mattle and Sophia Kircher are satisfied.(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

What do election polls and all those weather apps have in common? They know the answer. Very little, apart from the fact that they predict the blue sky and then things usually turn out quite differently. Of course, this comparison is a bit of a joke and can be dismissed with a smile.

Far less laughable is the fact that voter turnout in Tyrol was by far the lowest in the country. Just 48% of eligible voters were able to get themselves together to take part in the EU elections, which take place every five years. Of course, you could say that voter turnout in Tyrol was already the lowest nationwide in the 1996, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 EU elections. And the third worst in 2019. The Tyrolean People's Party may come up with a suitable explanation for this. After all, it can also take some positives from an electoral debacle with an almost 13 percent drop to below 30 percent of the vote for the first time.

Kircher's entry into the EU Parliament is pleasing

Speaking of positives: from the perspective of the Tyrolean People's Party, Sophia Kircher's entry into the EU Parliament is of course gratifying. It remains to be seen how successful and influential the 30-year-old will be among the 719 other MEPs. After all, she wants to appear as "Your voice for Tyrol" - at least that's how she has been advertised. At least in her home town, the provincial capital of Innsbruck, this voice was heard rather little. There, 18.7% voted for the ÖVP, a drop of 8.2% and thus third place behind the SPÖ and the Greens. In 2019, the ÖVP was still the party with the most votes in Innsbruck in the EU elections. We can wish the neo-EU MEP Kircher - who received a remarkable 23,000 preferential votes - all the best for her appearances on the new political stage and that her voice will be heard there.

FPÖ veteran Hauser moves to Brussels

The same applies to the second Tyrolean representative in the EU Parliament, the FPÖ veteran Gerald Hauser. The soon-to-be 63-year-old comes from St. Jakob im Defereggen in East Tyrol. His election result there? Less than Kircher. A modest 15.9% - the third worst result for the FPÖ of all 277 Tyrolean towns. The ÖVP achieved 53.8% there (despite -16.2%). In other words, more than three times as much as the FPÖ. Hauser, who has always weathered all storms within the party, is not afraid of paradigm shifts and developed crazy conspiracy theories during the coronavirus pandemic, wants to "clean up Brussels".

FPÖ performs relatively poorly in Tyrol

Speaking of cleaning up: as reported, the FPÖ Tyrol achieved the third-worst result in a national comparison. It was followed only by Vorarlberg and "red" Vienna. Apparently, at least in Tyrol, the blue parties are not putting the horsepower on the road that they are said to have. This was recently demonstrated by the municipal and mayoral elections in Innsbruck, where they achieved a weak 15%. Which is hardly surprising. Apart from provincial party leader Markus Abwerzger and, to some extent, provincial MP Evelyn Achhorner, most FPÖ mandataries are rather "schmähstad" and "inconspicuous" in the public debate.

Greens conspicuously quiet after defeat

The Greens, who were among the losers of this election in Tyrol, were unusually quiet and reserved. After the defeat for the mayor's seat in Innsbruck, now the next failure. Only the "flagship" Innsbruck (lost 6.6%) and Innsbruck-Land (-5.2%) remained in double figures. In the other seven districts of Tyrol there were single-digit results.