🇦🇹 Austrian Elections & Politics 6.0 - Upper Austria election: 26 Sept. 2021

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Is the dark grey spot right in the middle of Vienna the neighbourhood where all the turbocharged upper BouRgeOisiE whose housing is worth seven digits lives?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Yes, and the 1st District is also much slower to diversify than other districts of Vienna - which have seen an influx of immigrants from all over the World.

The population in the 1st has actually declined a lot over the decades and is pretty stagnant lately, while others are back to their 1900 levels.

While you have people from Africa and the Middle-East and Eastern Europe settle in the 10th and 11th districts and R-5H (where you can still get apartments for 10€ the square meter), you will mostly see upper-middle-class immigrants from Germany, Switzerland or Russia settle in the first, because they can afford to do so (5.000€/squre meter).

And those wealthy immigrants from the EU and Russia etc. are by definition more ÖVP+Green+NEOS voting, instead of SPÖ+FPÖ+Strache ...

Did you miss some zeroes in the first price you mentioned? You'd be talking about apartments of 100 m² costing less than a small motorcycle lmao

Also, 5000€ per m² sounds pretty low for the poshest and upper-class-est district in all Austria.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Yes, and the 1st District is also much slower to diversify than other districts of Vienna - which have seen an influx of immigrants from all over the World.

The population in the 1st has actually declined a lot over the decades and is pretty stagnant lately, while others are back to their 1900 levels.

While you have people from Africa and the Middle-East and Eastern Europe settle in the 10th and 11th districts and R-5H (where you can still get apartments for 10€ the square meter), you will mostly see upper-middle-class immigrants from Germany, Switzerland or Russia settle in the first, because they can afford to do so (5.000€/squre meter).

And those wealthy immigrants from the EU and Russia etc. are by definition more ÖVP+Green+NEOS voting, instead of SPÖ+FPÖ+Strache ...

Did you miss some zeroes in the first price you mentioned? You'd be talking about apartments of 100 m² costing less than a small motorcycle lmao

Also, 5000€ per m² sounds pretty low for the poshest and upper-class-est district in all Austria.

That’s monthly rent prices, not purchase prices.

You can still rent a 100m² apartment for about 1.000€ per month in some of those residential middle-class districts. Purchase prices: ca. 100.000 to 300.000€.

Vienna remains one of the most affordable cities for working-class families. The prices there are only a handful of what they are in Munich, London or Paris.

On the other hand, you are easily spending a few to several thousand €s a month to rent a same-sized luxury apartment in the inner-city. Purchase prices: 1 million € or more.

Aaaaaaaaah OK

Now it all makes sense. Sorry, I just never talk in terms of rent prices, because it isn't part of my personal life really.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Yes, and the 1st District is also much slower to diversify than other districts of Vienna - which have seen an influx of immigrants from all over the World.

The population in the 1st has actually declined a lot over the decades and is pretty stagnant lately, while others are back to their 1900 levels.

While you have people from Africa and the Middle-East and Eastern Europe settle in the 10th and 11th districts and R-5H (where you can still get apartments for 10€ the square meter), you will mostly see upper-middle-class immigrants from Germany, Switzerland or Russia settle in the first, because they can afford to do so (5.000€/squre meter).

And those wealthy immigrants from the EU and Russia etc. are by definition more ÖVP+Green+NEOS voting, instead of SPÖ+FPÖ+Strache ...

Did you miss some zeroes in the first price you mentioned? You'd be talking about apartments of 100 m² costing less than a small motorcycle lmao

Also, 5000€ per m² sounds pretty low for the poshest and upper-class-est district in all Austria.

That’s monthly rent prices, not purchase prices.

You can still rent a 100m² apartment for about 1.000€ per month in some of those residential middle-class districts. Purchase prices: ca. 100.000 to 300.000€.

Vienna remains one of the most affordable cities for working-class families. The prices there are only a handful of what they are in Munich, London or Paris.

On the other hand, you are easily spending a few to several thousand €s a month to rent a same-sized luxury apartment in the inner-city. Purchase prices: 1 million € or more.

Aaaaaaaaah OK

Now it all makes sense. Sorry, I just never talk in terms of rent prices, because it isn't part of my personal life really.

As a general thing, home ownership rates are much lower, and consequently the number of people renting is much higher, in the German speaking countries than elsewhere. In big cities that is even more the case. So in a city like Vienna, you have around 80-90% of people renting their homes. Which is why people tend there tend to automatically assume prices as meaning rent prices rather than purchase ones.

I understand. I remember seeing some graphics about homeownership rates in Europe something like one month ago and there was exactly that but sadly I don't remember any other details.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I understand. I remember seeing some graphics about homeownership rates in Europe something like one month ago and there was exactly that but sadly I don't remember any other details.

Voilà
https://www.lefigaro.fr/assets/infographie/print/1fixe/201334_carte_europe.png

Seems that it is really the DACH countries and former Easter bloc that stand out. Seems like in the former case it is basically down to there being no particular ideological attachment to "property ownership" and consequentially government policy has never really catered towards it, instead making a bigger effort to ensure that private renters are relatively secure and well protected. I suspect the opposite effect would be in play in post-90's Eastern Europe.

The graphics I saw also divided private housing tenants and social housing tenants. Do you have anything on that?
(I am pretty sure the UK is especially high on the latter)

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

SPÖ-NEOS coalition talks in Vienna have come to a successful conclusion after 35 rounds of talks.

https://kurier.at/chronik/wien/rot-pink-in-wien-verhandlungen-erfolgreich-abgeschlossen/401098263

Details will be presented tomorrow and both party committees will sign off the first Social-Liberal coalition in Austria ever on Tuesday.

More enhanced social liberalism everywhere then.

Which is not exactly surprising in a large Western city in 2020, of course.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

There's a regular municipal election coming up on Jan. 24th in St. Pölten (capital of Lower Austria).

The capital historically votes on a different date than the other 570 or so towns in the state.

The last election in 2016 (before Kurz), had the following results:

59% SPÖ (+2)
20% ÖVP (-5)
15% FPÖ (+4)
  3% Greens (-2)
  2% NEOS (+2)
  1% Others (-1)

This time, SPÖ, ÖVP, FPÖ, Greens, NEOS and KPÖ will run.

47.000 people are eligible to vote. Turnout was 64% in 2016.

This time, I would assume that the SPÖ loses 2-6%, the ÖVP gains the same amount, the FPÖ drops well below 10% and Greens and NEOS gain ground moderately.

Historical results

[image]

Polls are now closing and votes being counted.

This should take ca. 2-3 hours.

How did the KPÖ make the ballot again after missing the previous three municipal elections in St. Pölten (and that after a long progressive decline in vote share in the elections before), according to the German Wikipedia page you linked to?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

The results were about what I expected ...

Despite 56% for the SPÖ, this is actually their worst result since 1972.

Best result for the Greens ever.

Best result for the KPÖ since 1986.

That's surprising, although given that it's a very meager 1.12% of the vote, it tells you more about the dire straits in which the party has been for many, many years than anything.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I can't believe that nobody has written anything about tomorrow's presidential election in Austria yet.
Incumbent President Alexander Van der Bellen, a member of the Green Party of Austria, is seeking re-election, which he is expected to win, albeit not quite as easy anymore as it had seemed at the beginning of the election campaign.
In the polls, he is still leading with a comfortable margin, but he has fallen below the 50% threshold in the meantime, so that it may come to a runoff in the end.
Trailing far behind, the FPÖ guy Walter Rosenkranz and Marco Pogo from the ... Beer Party are competing for the second place.
Oh, if you're wondering who that Marco Pogo is, he is the lead singer of the punk-rock band TURBOBIER that makes songs like this...


Wouldn't it be funny if Pogo really made it to the runoffs, so that Van der Bellen would have to go head to head with him in a live TV debate? 🤭
You won't guess what Dominik Wlazny (alias Marco Pogo) does for a living in "real" life...

If he makes it to the runoff then the party should fold, like the Best Party in Iceland did once they started actually winning elections, to avoid defeating the purpose of the entire satirical candidacy and being subsumed into the object of satire (cf. Mark Fisher on "Why I Want to F-ck Ronald Reagan").

And yet the UK's satirical party, the Liberal Democrats, keeps going regardless of their success (or lack of it).

Italy's satirical party, the Five Star Movement, was the most voted in not one but two consecutive elections.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I love how this is an exact repeat of the presidential election screw up from a few years ago. Maybe Austria isn't mature enough to have a democracy lol.

AuSStria, the country with the addiction to grand coalitions of Germany and to partitocratic patronage of Italy but worse in both cases, which goes "la la la I can't hear you" when you point out it started WW1 and produced Hitler, knowingly elected as president a former Wehrmacht intelligence officer, and can't even sodding count votes correctly, is not mature for democracy? Ha, what a fanciful and outlandish idea.