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Michael Ritsch, a 52-year-old SPÖ politician, becomes mayor of Bregenz, the state capital of Vorarlberg. He prevailed in the second round of the mayoral election on Sunday with 51.67 percent of the votes against the 60-year-old incumbent mayor of the ÖVP, Markus Linhart (ÖVP). Ritsch becomes the first Social Democratic mayor of Bregenz in 30 years.
Challenger Ritsch was able to claim 5,460 votes (51.67 percent) in the second round, and Mayor Linhart, who has been in office since 1998, 5,108 (48.33 percent), a 352-vote lead for Ritsch. The turnout was 49.85 percent, after 50 percent in the first vote. Ritsch and Linhart competed with each other in these municipal elections for the fourth time in the direct mayoral election, after 2005 they met for the second time in a second round this year.
Ritsch is now the third Social Democratic mayor of Bregenz, where the mayors of the Social Democrats ruled from 1970 to 1990 (Fritz Mayer from 1970 to 1988, Norbert Neururer from 1988 to 1990) and the party temporarily held an absolute majority.
This time, Ritsch entered the second round with 893 votes behind (3,532 to 4,425 votes; 8.72 percentage points difference), far more than 15 years ago, when Ritsch was only 317 votes behind on the first vote. Linhart held the lead with a 52.56 percent share of the vote.
