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Ophthalmologist Frank Matt, 57, becomes the first green mayor of Vorarlberg. He prevailed on Sunday in Lochau on Lake Constance in the second round of the mayor’s election against incumbent Michael Simma (61, ÖVP). In the second round, Matt turned a 151-vote deficit in the first round of elections into a 224-vote lead. While 1,366 citizens expressed their confidence in him (54.47 percent of the votes), Simma obtained 1,142 votes (45.53 percent).
In the first vote on Sept. 13, Matt was nearly seven percentage points behind Simma. Simma and Matt competed with each other in the direct mayoral election in 2015. At the time, Simma still held the lead over Matt (26.27 percent) with a 59.31 percent share of the vote and avoided a runoff.
Protest against Zwentendorf and in Hainburger Au
As a politician, Frank Matt was successful from the start. In 2010, when they first appeared in Lochau, on Lake Constance, he led the Greens to the municipal council with more than 23 percent of the vote. But he had been involved in environmental politics for much longer. What started in a group of young people from the Union for Conservation of Nature in Bregenz continued in active protest in Hainburger Au and at the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant. In addition to environmental issues, Matt, a father of four, who also has a grandson, put the focus in the 2020 election campaign on family friendship, affordable housing and community cooperation.
Matt makes the 96-head Vorarlberg Mayor Championship’s color spectrum more colorful, joining two colleagues from the SPÖ and three from the FPÖ for now. All the other mayors of Vorarlberg belong to the ÖVP or are considered civilians.
SPÖ conquers the state capital
Michael Ritsch, a 52-year-old SPÖ politician, becomes mayor of the state capital, Bregenz. He triumphed in the second round of the elections against the current 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 of the elections, Mayor Linhart, who has held office since 1998, 5,108 (48.33 percent). 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.
The governor of Vorarlberg and leader of the ÖVP state party, Markus Wallner, described the change of the mayor’s office in Bregenz from the ÖVP to the SPÖ as “painful, there is nothing to overlook”. The incentive must be “to change that again in five years” and the work to achieve it must begin tomorrow.
The Social Democrats also celebrated a victory at Hard on Lake Constance. The leader of the state party SPÖ, Martin Staudinger, becomes the new mayor of his home community. The 41-year-old received more support than incumbent Eva Maria Mair (ÖVP) in the second round of the mayoral election on Sunday. With 3,777 votes (67.06 percent of the vote), Staudinger was far ahead of Mair. Since Staudinger wants to focus on the mayor’s office, he will hand over the party chairmanship.
The long-term mayor of Lech voted out of office
The mayor of Lech am Arlberg, Ludwig Muxel (65), has been eliminated. After more than 27 years in office, he was defeated by his challenger Stefan Jochum (54). While Jochum received 549 votes (53.56 percent of the votes), Muxel had to be content with 476 votes (46.44 percent). The turnout was 80.64 percent (first vote: 81.09 percent). Even in the first vote, the mayor was clearly behind Jochum.
According to his ideas, Muxel would have wanted to sit in the mayor’s chair for two more years and then hand it over. The mayor’s long-standing personal plans were apparently thwarted by the strong headwind when designing the new community center. The large project, which is already underway, with investment costs of 38 million euros and the completion date 2022, is dividing the community. Jochum scored particularly well among voters for his attitude that the big project was going in a direction he didn’t like. A longtime Muxel colleague and confidant, Jochum, who is Lech’s registrar, only decided to run for direct mayoral election in the summer.
In Feldkirch, Wolfgang Matt (ÖVP) is still the head of the town. Simon Tschann (ÖVP), 28, won at Bludenz. (apa)
