The Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) was thrown into pandemonium Monday, June 5th, after the party’s electoral commission reversed previously declared results in a hotly contested leadership race.
The centre-left party had been engaged in a bitter leadership contest that pitted progressive talisman Andreas Babler against grassroots challenger Hans Peter Doskozil on the back of poor performances in regional elections. The party has been split on how to respond to the rise of the FPÖ—with Doskozil championing a more conservative line on immigration, and Babler wishing to take the SPÖ to the Left. Both candidates were desperate to unseat centrist SPÖ incumbent Pamela Rendi-Wagner, blaming her for poor poll performance.
In a shock decision, SPÖ officials overturned an earlier announcement declaring Doskozil elected in favour of Babler in a move that has unleashed chaos within the already divided party. Doskozil was declared the winner Sunday evening with 53% of delegate votes. Concerns then surfaced that officials had counted misattributed votes due to a mistake in an Excel file.
The SPÖ backtracked Monday afternoon with officials announcing an embarrassing U-turn due to what they described as a “technical error” in the voting process. The final tally for the leadership race was 317 to 280 in favour of Babler, as the party claimed that delegate votes had been accidentally mixed up.
The Doskozil campaign issued a statement accepting the decision but right-wing pundits were already rushing to brandish the race as rigged.
The social democrats have been reeling from the rise of the nationalist Freedom Party FPÖ in recent months. Doskozil’s strategy was to harden the SPÖ’s stance on immigration and open the door to a potential coalition with the FPÖ. According to party insiders, the SPÖ party is split three ways, between centrist, socialist, and more conservative tendencies. Doskozil has been regarded as embodying the grassroots discontent in the party.
The election of Babler, however, marks a definitive shift to the Left for the party, as Austria heads to legislative elections next year. The mayor of the city of Traiskirchen, Babler has been noted for his Marxist worldview, evident in videos surfacing that label the EU as an imperialist project.
The outcome of the election kerfuffle, favouring Babler, could lead to a grand coalition of the Left, including Green and Communist parties, as Babler has already outlined. Nevertheless, according to political consultant Marcus How, writing for The Guardian, any shift to the Left by the SPÖ increases the likelihood of a coalition between the FPÖ and conservative ÖVP.
The political mainstream in Austria, under pressure for its non-aligned position, is split on how to deal with a populist insurgency led by the FPÖ: opinion polls show the FPÖ leading the pack, despite attempts to undermine its credibility with pro-Russian witch hunts.
