This election outcome was expected by many and some had already heatedly debated its possible signaling effect in advance. But the fact that Kay-Michael Dankl and his KPÖ Plus would do so well in Salzburg is now considered a sensation in Austria. Salzburg is now “red-dark red,” were the headlines.
After the Styrian capital Graz, where the communist Elke Kahr has ruled since 2021, western Austria now also has its left-wing island. The FPÖ, on the other hand, which is polling at around 30 percent nationwide ahead of the National Council election planned for the fall, played no role in Salzburg. According to numerous commentators, this is an indication that many voters do not necessarily vote for right-wing populists and that xenophobia is not always a trend. But that a political alternative to the bourgeois parties is being sought and that “mild left-wing populism” can also be successful.
The ÖVP is ahead in local council elections throughout the state
In the local council elections on Sunday, the conservative ÖVP is ahead across the entire state. But in the city of Salzburg, which was last ruled by an ÖVP mayor, the communists increased by almost 20 percent compared to 2019. They won 23 percent of the vote in a community that had not previously been considered a hotbed of socialist politics.
The strongest party – after the ÖVP’s decline in the state capital by 16 to just 20.7 percent – is the Social Democrats with 25.6. And the SPÖ was also very happy that they had only lost minimally and had stabilized locally after long quarrels in the federal party and a financial scandal in the city.
The candidates on election evening in Salzburg: Bernhard Auinger (SPÖ), Florian Kreibich (ÖVP) and Kay-Michael Dankl (KPÖ Plus).
(Photo: Barbara Gindl/DPA)
But the topic of the election campaign, the election evening and the next day is the KPÖ Plus and its top candidate Kay-Michael Dankl, who also ran as a candidate for mayor and came in second place. And who now has to go into the runoff election against the Social Democrat Bernhard Auinger in two weeks. Or may. Whichever way you take it.
Dankl, a 35-year-old historian, has focused on the issue of rents and housing in recent years, both as a lone fighter in the city council and with his team at party headquarters, and has massively denounced the municipality’s housing policy.
The KPÖ promises “the blue sky,” says its competitor from the SPÖ
Salzburg, like Innsbruck, where elections are taking place in four weeks, is an extremely expensive place; When it comes to the cost of living and rents, it is far ahead in Austrian comparison. He will stick with “affordable housing,” said Dankl on Sunday evening. The outcome of the election shows “that more and more people want a different form of politics. A politics that sticks to what it promised before the election after the election.”
The young politician, who comes from the Greens and founded a new list with the KPÖ Plus in 2017, had also announced that, as mayor, he would personally support needy Salzburg residents directly, as he has done before. In return, he will only keep “an average skilled worker’s wage of the politician’s salary.”
Dankl is seen as a type of classic son-in-law, not ideologically hardened, but politically grounded – as someone who takes care of rent problems and the socially disadvantaged, including with a citizens’ consultation hour. His colleague Elke Kahr in Graz also based her election victory on this.
SPÖ man Bernhard Auinger went on the offensive again two weeks before the runoff election for the mayor’s post on Monday morning. He accused the KPÖ of promising “the blue sky” – including halving rents. It must be clear to everyone that this cannot be implemented. The FPÖ had already warned of a “left-wing danger” before the election and the ÖVP, referring to its top candidate, had posted a poster: “Kreibich or communism”. Apparently, Kay-Michael Dankl did not become a bogeyman for Salzburg.