Giorgia Meloni was not the right’s only big election winner this weekend, with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) also seeing success by scoring 18.6 percent of the vote in state elections in Tyrol.
The right-wing party overtook SPÖ, which only won 17.4 percent of the vote, to come in second place. The center-right ÖVP, which currently rules the country at the federal level in a coalition with the Greens, secured the first place result, with 34.7 percent of the vote, but saw its share drop 9.5 points. FPÖ’s top candidate, Markus Abwerzger, saw his vote total jump 3.3 points from 2018.
ÖVP already ruled out a power-sharing agreement with FPÖ before the election, and will most likely join an alliance with SPÖ, despite a coalition with FPÖ resulting in more seats in the state parliament.
The Greens fell from 10.7 percent to 9.2 percent, but also had the “Fritz List” overtake them to become the fourth-largest party in Tyrol. Voter turnout rose five points to 65 percent.
The Alpine region in the west of Austria is home to 1.8 million people and features the capital city of Innsbruck.
