Criticism after defeat

Salzburg SPÖ cites Andreas Babler

The National Council elections were sobering for the SPÖ. Top candidate Andreas Babler wanted to become Federal Chancellor, but his party came a distant third. Now internal party criticism is coming from Salzburg - and Lower Austria is also expecting internal party discussions ...

The Salzburg comrades watched the first projection shortly after 5 pm on election Sunday in the basement of the SPÖ party headquarters in Wartelsteinstraße. Their mood also plummeted when they saw the results. "I didn't imagine it would be this drastic, I would have expected the FPÖ, ÖVP and us to be closer together," said Salzburg's top candidate Andreas Haitzer.

What led to the weak result? Salzburg's mayor Bernhard Auinger found cryptic but quite clear words: "I don't want to say anything about whether Andreas Babler was the right person. Our friends in Vienna will analyze this on Monday. I don't think the analysis will be that difficult. They will make the right decision."

Egger: "The result is sobering"
Salzburg's SPÖ leader David Egger also said: "The result is sobering." And: "A mixture of everything is to blame, from the internal disputes and also the choice of candidates."

SPÖ party chairman Andreas Babler received support from Federal Councillor Michael Wanner: "We need consistency now. Who else should take the chair?"

SPÖ Lower Austria also expects personnel discussion
Hannes Weninger, club leader of the SPÖ in the Lower Austrian state parliament, also expects a personnel discussion in the party after the National Council elections. "Better openly than behind the scenes," he said. The fact that the ÖVP is "always in government", "regardless of the outcome of an election", is a "democratic political catastrophe".

The party executive of the Vienna SPÖ, on the other hand, decided on Monday that there would be no discussion of personnel in the federal party, as the regional party chairman, Mayor Michael Ludwig, announced on Monday morning.