Austrian Presidential Election: Van der Bellen Gets Re-Elected
Austria has voted! Last weekend, Austrians turned out at their respective polling stations to elect a new Federal President or to give the incumbent another term in office. Read about the outcome of the election here in this article!
The incumbent President Van der Bellen may hold office for another 6 years. / Picture: © www.bundespraesident.at / Peter Lechner / HBF
Austria's incumbent Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen can breathe a sigh of relief. After an eagerly awaited first projection of the election results, it was clear that the President would be allowed to spend another 6 years in the Hofburg without another run-off election.
The 78-year-old Tyrolean received 54.6% of the votes and thus holds the absolute majority. If none of the candidates had reached 50%, there would have been a run-off. Van der Bellen is now spared this, which was his declared campaign goal.
Not all votes have been counted yet, as the postal votes have to be counted on Monday, but it is statistically impossible for the incumbent president to fall below the 50% mark.
Thus, in the historically largest field of participants, Alexander Van der Bellen was able to assert himself sovereignly with 6 other competitors. You can find out who his competitors were in the fight for the office of the Austrian Federal President in this Vindobona article.
Van der Bellen was able to score points especially with older voter groups due to his experience and his serious appearance. Critics, on the other hand, accuse him of having acted too cautiously in the last crisis-ridden years and called for a more active president.
For the time being, Alexander Van der Bellen has been able to silence those critics. With his absolute majority, Van der Bellen continues a long-standing rule, since until now every incumbent Federal President could claim an absolute majority in the first ballot when running for a second term.
In einem Twitter Post, bedankte sich Van der Bellen bei seinen zahlreichen Wählern.
— A. Van der Bellen (@vanderbellen) October 9, 2022
The Austrian Federal Chancellor also got in touch via social media and wished the new/old president all the best and looked forward to good cooperation.
Gratulation an Bundespräsident @vanderbellen zur Wiederwahl! Ich freue mich auf die weitere gute Zusammenarbeit für unser Land & wünsche alles Gute.
— Karl Nehammer (@karlnehammer) October 9, 2022
Behind Van der Bellen in second place is the candidate of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), Walter Rosenkranz. The right-wing politician was able to claim a total of 19.09% of the votes. In the run-up to the election, second place was hotly contested, as it was hoped that he would have a chance against Van der Bellen in the event of a run-off.
With his almost 20%, Rosenkranz also clearly stood out from his other competitors. Tassilo Wallentin with 8.39% and Dominik Wlazny with 8.23%, who mainly scored with young urban voters, came in third and fourth. The duel for third place has not yet been decided, however, as the counting of postal votes could still result in changes. In the end, however, it no longer has any significance worth mentioning.
The former FPÖ and BZÖ politician Gerald Grosz was even further behind, receiving only 5.96% of the votes due to his offensive and provocative manner. Finally, the candidates Michael Brunner from the anti-vaccination party MFG and the entrepreneur Heinrich Staudinger followed with 2.17% and 1.56% respectively.
The official and final results will be published on 17 October and from then on Alexander Van der Bellen will be officially designated for a second term as Federal President of the Republic of Austria. Van der Bellen will be sworn in before the Federal Assembly on 26 January, just as he was for his first term.
BMI - Ministry of the Interior - Bundesministerium fuer Inneres