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Talks about forming a new city government coalition will start soon in Vienna. Now that the exploratory rounds are over, the ball is with the SPÖ. Party leader and mayor Michael Ludwig will announce early next week who he will negotiate with. This was confirmed by a party spokesman on Thursday.
It can be assumed that Ludwig will initiate one or another internal consultation this week. However, party committees will not formally give the green light until after the weekend. The fact that this is the case on Monday, that is, on the national holiday, is ruled out. Because Ludwig will participate in the official celebrations of this day, as was emphasized at the party. Thus, Tuesday is considered a promising candidate for the negotiating decision.
“Definitely differences”
At the moment, in the best of cases there is speculation about which party will be chosen. The SPÖ has dreamed of the ÖVP, the Greens and the Neos. Nothing was announced about the content of the meeting, Ludwig did not look at his letters on it. Potential junior partners also remained vague, with one exception: Vienna’s ÖVP chief, Finance Minister Gernot Blümel, reported late Wednesday that there were “differences” in terms of content. That doesn’t suggest that turquoise red is very likely.
In fact, a continuation of red-green would be a relatively logical variant, also because both parties came out stronger in the elections. However, the SPÖ is clearly not opposed to considering a coalition with the Neos. Unlike the Greens, due to electoral arithmetic, they would not receive two, but only one town hall. That would mean that the Minister of Education Jürgen Czernohorszky would have to leave his chair. The SPÖ would probably also have to hand over the environmental department to the Greens, but probably without Stadtwerke and Wien-Holding.
Whatever the decision, there is a lot of work waiting for negotiators in light of the tight schedule. Because Ludwig recently emphasized that the coalition should be in place by mid-November. This would also ensure that, as is customary in Vienna so far, the new government is sworn in at the constituent meeting of the municipal council. It is expected to take place on November 24.
The currently reigning red-green government would need 19 days for this. Not even three weeks passed in 2015 from the beginning of the negotiations until the approval of the pact by the bodies of both parties.
In 2015 it took 19 days
Five years ago, the Vienna elections also took place on October 11 and the goal was also to have a government in place by mid-November. The 2015 result brought a different starting point in terms of partner choice. At the time, the SPÖ and then-mayor Michael Häupl had not three, but only two options due to the mandate: either the continuation of the coalition with the Greens under the presidency of Maria Vassilakou or a cooperation with the ÖVP after its historically worst electoral result. Although the Neos moved to city council and state parliament for the first time, they only had five seats. Together with the 44 MPs of the SPÖ, there was no majority in 2015, unlike now, for a possible red-rose coalition.
After a round of talks the week after the election with all parties – despite everything, Häupl and his team spoke with Neos and also with FPÖ, with whom, like this time, cooperation was excluded from the start – announced the mayor on October 20. a decision by the relevant committee to enter into coalition talks with the Greens. The city chief at the time said he was negotiating with an open mind, but at the same time stressed that he does not see “really insurmountable obstacles”, at best “differences of opinion.” He viewed the disputes of the first red-green period calmly: “If there were no conflicts in a coalition, it would be quite bland.
The first round of negotiations took place after the national holiday, on October 27, in which the timetable and procedure were determined here. In terms of content, it was not until the next day that it was first launched, not only in the core teams, but also in the numerous subgroups that addressed specific topics. On November 13, 2015, the 138-page pact “One city, two million opportunities” was available. A day later, the bodies of the SPÖ and the Greens officially approved the outcome of the negotiations. The new red-green edition finally ended 19 days after the start of negotiations. The city government was sworn in on November 24.
Grand Coalition 1996
In addition to the first edition of the cooperation with the Greens in 2010, the SPÖ, spoiled for decades with an absolute majority, had to seek a government partner for the first time in 1996. In the 1996 municipal council elections, Michael Häupl’s Reds they fell more than eight percentage points to 39.15 percent. They thus reached their all-time low, which is still in effect today. The choice of government partners fell to the ÖVP. The planning department was left to her by Bernhard Görg and the culture department by Peter Marboe. Five years later, Häupl regained the Absolute, which could consequently again govern two legislative terms without a partner. In 2010, the mayor’s party again fell below the 50-seat limit. The result was the first national red-green coalition.
