Regional elections in Austria: surprise successes for vaccine skeptics and communists

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KPÖ politician Elke Kahr, probably soon mayor of Graz

Photo: Erwin Scheriau / dpa

Surprise at the state elections on Sunday in Upper Austria: the Corona vaccination skeptics on the Human-Freedom-Basic Rights List (MFG) make it into the state parliament without any problems when they run for the first time.

According to initial projections, they get around seven percent of the vote.

The hurdle is four percent.

According to calculations by the ARGE Wahlen, the conservative ÖVP headed by regional chief Thomas Stelzer defends its first place.

With 36 to 37 percent, it stayed with its 2015 result. Second place goes to the right-wing populist FPÖ (around 20 percent), ahead of the SPÖ (19) and the Greens (12).

As expected, the FPÖ lost around a third of its votes - in 2015 it still had 30.36 percent.

The ÖVP can either continue to form a coalition with the FPÖ, the SPÖ or perhaps with the Greens.

1.1 million eligible voters were called to vote.

A final result is expected around 10 p.m.

The vote on the municipal council in Graz, the provincial capital of Styria, presented a completely different picture: According to forecasts by ORF, the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) clearly overtook its competitor ÖVP and came in first place with around 29 percent of the votes, a gain of almost 9 percent.

This means that KPÖ top candidate Elke Kahr should take over the office of mayor.

The Greens were also able to increase their result significantly and came with an increase of over 6 percent to 17.2 percent.

hpi / dpa