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Choice as Ludwig’s premiere
Looking at all the major candidates from the larger parties (with the exception of HC Strache’s team), it was Ludwig’s first appearance in this position.
A particularly big challenge compared to its competitors, as it had to follow in the footsteps of Mayor Michael Häupl, who had almost achieved cult status towards the end of his term.
It was not an easy task for the former Floridsdorf councilor, who was initially considered quite colorless. This is probably one of the reasons why he scored his extremely low personal choice goal: Ludwig was aiming for the same result as Häupl when he last appeared, that is, the 39.6 percent of 2015 which was the second worst result of the Viennese SPÖ since 1945.
32 percent: SPÖ fund
However, Wiener Roten polls in the closing months of the Häupl era, when the SPÖ was caught in a crippling trench warfare for its successor and dropped to 32 percent, showed things to be even worse.
A channel from which Ludwig was soon able to draw his comrades out of the months after his inauguration. With a policy that sent signals to both the right and the left of the party.
That meant, for example: alcohol bans at critical points in the city like the Praterstern train station, but at the same time a clear no to the turquoise-blue cuts in minimum rent. The Kurz government gave a welcoming image of the enemy until the crisis of the crown and the electoral campaign to mobilize the comrades.
The SPÖ lacks the image of an enemy
Because the SPÖ was missing something like this at the immediate level of Vienna in this electoral campaign. The FPÖ, which remained a serious competitor in the race for first place in 2015, is mired in internal disagreements this time. Outwardly, a supposedly planned “dirndl coalition” made up of the ÖVP, Greens and Neos had to serve as a specter, in whose real possibility none of the Red strategists on Löwelstrasse seriously believed.
In any case, the SPÖ polls and also Ludwig’s popularity ratings steadily increased over the course of this empty election campaign. The latter is probably also due to weak competition, most notably Gernot Blümel, who seemed very listless this election campaign, and Birgit Hebein, who was a grateful target with her rather uncoordinated solo efforts in the transport sector. Not to mention the third divided camp.
Crown like sand in the gears
But the SPÖ’s election campaign was also completely overshadowed by the crown crisis, which left many other unpleasant issues for the Reds under the table. In the first phase of the pandemic, Ludwig managed to lead the city through the crisis like a no-nonsense manager.
With relatively low infection rates, quick financial aid was combined with some somewhat populist measures like the food voucher.
In recent weeks, of course, more and more sand has gotten into the machine: an increasing number of infections and sometimes chaotic conditions during testing and contact tracing put the city government on the defensive.
Finally, there was a big dispute between Health Councilor Peter Hacker and ÖVP Interior Minister Karl Nehammer over the work of the crisis team, in which Ludwig had to whistle at his friend from the party. Processes that were seen internally as useless at the end of the electoral campaign.
