28 percent participation

Carinthian business has elected its representative

The Carinthian Chamber of Commerce has been very busy over the past few days - elections were held in 94 professional organizations over two days.(Bild: Evelyn Hronek)

The Chamber of Commerce elections in Carinthia are over - the result is hardly surprising. Despite losses in the coming years, the Wirtschaftsbund holds a two-thirds majority in the economic parliament.

On 12 and 13 March, 38,670 entrepreneurs in Carinthia had the opportunity to vote in person at one of 47 polling stations or by voting card in their respective trade organization or, in the case of several trades, trade organizations (trade group, guild, committee). The results are now known:

• Wirtschaftsbund (top candidate Jürgen Mandl): 67.1 percent
• Freiheitliche Wirtschaft (top candidate Günter Burger): 17.8 percent
• Social Democratic Business Association (lead candidate Alfred Trey): 8 percent
• Green Economy (lead candidate Markus Ertel): 4.7 percent
• Unos (top candidate Christian Weinhold): 2.1 percent

Although the Wirtschaftsbund suffered losses of 10.2 percentage points, it remains the strongest force. The Freiheitliche Wirtschaft was able to gain almost as many percentage points (+10.3) - the SWV was also able to make slight gains (+1.8 percentage points). The Green Economy had to contend with a drop of 2.7 percentage points and the Unos were pleased with their 2.1 percent (+1.2 percentage points).

Hardly any shifts in seats

Based on the result, the distribution of mandates in the specialist organizations has changed as follows: The WB comes to 603 mandates (+2), the FW to 130 (+17), the SWV to 52 (-22), the GW to 25 (-12) and the Unos to 7 (+3).

Turnout target not achieved
The voter turnout target communicated by most political groups before the election - namely 30% - was narrowly missed. According to the Chamber, only 28.32% of eligible voters cast their vote. In other words, not even one in three. Nevertheless, a slight increase was achieved compared to the 2020 ballot (28.16%). And the Chamber of Commerce is celebrating this as a "trend reversal", as the "downward trend seen in previous elections" has been halted.