Second round election in Bludenz between ÖVP and SPÖ – Bludenz

Unsurprisingly, the struggling southern city of Vorarlberg will have a runoff between ÖVP career changer Simon Tschann and Social Democrat Mario Leiter, who is making his second bid to become mayor.

Simon Tschann should have a head start on September 27: his ÖVP increased significantly to 45.86 percent and 16 terms (2015: 40.51 percent, 14 terms). For the newcomer to politics as mayor, 2,975 voters, or 46.98 percent, voted on the first ballot. The SPÖ’s mayoral candidate leader won 43.88 percent approval (2,779 votes) but only 196 votes behind him and was therefore not out of the running. The SPÖ achieved a vote of 38.99 percent, that is 14 seats, and therefore increased slightly (2015: 37.76 percent, 13 seats).

Simon Tschann was “really happy” in a first reaction. Being in the lead the first time you run is “of course incredible”, in addition to the good performance of the party. But he does not see an advantage for the second round in his leadership: “It is a strong result, but not more than 50 percent.” He called on everyone who voted for him to vote again in two weeks. Tschann announced that his strong team would continue to campaign economically and fairly.

Mario Leiter found the SPÖ result “remarkable”. It was able to gain ground in the direct elections compared to 2015, and in the partisan elections it was able to prevail in the face of “adverse circumstances”, that is, the massive electoral campaign of the ÖVP. In the next two weeks he wants to reach the citizens with great force. After all, he was “very confident” about the second round of the elections, although “you couldn’t change the wind, you could set the sails differently.”

The duel of the great is not good for the small in the Alpine city. With the Greens, only 8.09 percent (2015: 11.09) put up their cross, they will only have two instead of three terms in the future. The Freedom Party lost up to 4.95 percent (2015: 10.65 percent), they had to give up two of their three previous seats. When they first appeared, NEOS underperformed at 2.11 percent and did not do a mandate. The respective top candidates – Joachim Weixlbaumer (FPÖ, 3.47 percent), Wolfgang Maurer (Greens, 3.98 percent) and Maximilian Fritsche (NEOS, 1.69 percent) – had no chance at the mayor’s question. .

Already in 2015 there was a second round between ÖVP and SPÖ in the Alpine city. At the time, the ÖVP and its mayor Josef “Mandi” Katzenmayer had suffered a severe electoral failure, lost more than ten percentage points and only obtained 40.51 percent of the vote. Katzenmayer, who received just 42.21 percent approval, had to go into the second round against Leiter, who was fairly close to the starter with 40.12 percent. The second round, which had to be repeated in December 2015 due to irregularities in the issuance of voting cards, beat Katzenmayer, who no longer appeared in 2020, with 54.6 percent.

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