Grassroots campaigning in a conservative stronghold — “People are happy about the opportunity to raise concerns in person”

Grassroots campaigning in a conservative stronghold — “People are happy about the opportunity to raise concerns in person”

Author: Florian Peschl
Interviewee: Laura Ozlberger

It may be the end of an era. This Sunday, Lower Austria, the Alps Republic’s second biggest state, elects a new regional parliament (Landtag). According to latest polls, the scandal-ridden People’s Party (ÖVP), confronted with multiple illegal financing and corruption investigations, might drop below 40 percent and lose its absolute majority for the first time in post-war history.

However, this does not mean that their establishment counterpart, the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), will necessarily benefit. Rather the opposite: Ratings below 24 percent suggest it might lose to the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), another premiere in Lower Austrian politics.