A turnaround worthy of a bad hidden camera. The Austrian Social Democratic Party caused consternation on Monday by announcing two days after the election of its new leader that it had reversed the results of the two candidates. “Due to an employee’s technical error in the Excel table, the result has been reversed,” said the head of the SPÖ electoral commission, Michaela Grubesa, visibly embarrassed at a press conference.
Exit therefore Hans Peter Doskozil, 52, the representative of the centrist wing of this formation sitting in the opposition. The unsuccessful candidate had celebrated his victory all weekend, convinced of having won 53% of the votes of the approximately 600 delegates to the congress. In the tabloid Krone Zeitung on Monday, he said he was already seeing himself at the chancellery.
The loser withdraws from political life
He immediately took note of this turnaround, announcing his withdrawal from national political life. It was “not a pleasant day”, he commented in an understatement. It is a candidate who has recently come out of the shadows, Andreas Babler, 50, who therefore finds himself against all odds at the head of the party.
In shock at this dramatic turn of events, the lucky winner preferred to ask for a new count. This confusion announced 48 hours after the vote provoked jeers on social networks and many indignant reactions, a local party official evoking her “shame” in the face of this “incredible amateurism”.
Especially since this blunder, discovered by pure chance, comes after years of internal quarrels within the party, which has fallen since 2017 after having provided many chancellors to Austria. Under these conditions, he is lagging behind in the polls behind the far right, on track to win the legislative elections scheduled for the fall of 2024.