For 77 years, the Austrian state of Tyrol has been a stronghold for the Christian Democratic ÖVP, which was considered virtually impregnable.

Missing an absolute majority was considered a defeat, there were even two-thirds majorities.

Those times are long gone.

But in the election on Sunday, the ÖVP slipped as deep as never before.

And since this had been apparent for some time, not only the state party, which has been used to success, but also the Chancellor's party ÖVP is now uneasy.

Stephen Lowenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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Paradoxically, however, it could be stabilized for the time being by the foreseeable poor election result in Tyrol.

Despite everything, first place and the post of governor in Innsbruck were retained, and the losses, as they say in stock exchange German, are already "priced in".

For the Austrian Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, according to assessments in Vienna, the important thing was whether the result of his party in the west of the country would be “bad, very bad or catastrophic”.

Because the next state election in an ÖVP stronghold is due in spring 2023, namely in Lower Austria.

The state is significantly larger and more important than Tyrol, and the state party there under state governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner will not want to take any risks.

Federal issues pull ÖVP down

Since Sebastian Kurz left politics, “St.

Pölten", the Lower Austrian state capital, is increasingly in charge again in the ÖVP.

It is no coincidence that the new ÖVP General Secretary Christian Stocker, whose name party leader Nehammer announced on Friday, is from Lower Austria.

His first official act will be to comment on the Tyrolean result, and the feared catastrophe has not happened.

Specifically, according to the first projections, the ÖVP received 34 percent of the votes, which is about ten points less than in the previous election in 2018. Behind them were the social democratic SPÖ and the right-wing FPÖ with about 19 percent, neck and neck.

The Fritz list, originally an ÖVP split, the Greens and the liberal NEOS also come to the state parliament.

The MFG, a party of opponents of vaccination and skeptics about corona measures, which caused a stir last year with regional successes also beyond Austria, has disappeared again for the time being.

That may have been part of the calculation when the previous governor Günther Platter announced his departure in the summer, called early elections and proclaimed the mayor of Galtür, Anton Mattle, as the new man of the ÖVP for Tyrol.

Platter, however, remained seated in the governor's chair.

In order to build up a real bonus in office, the time for Mattle would probably have been too short.

It was up to him to play off his long experience as a local politician.

During the serious avalanche accident in Galtür in 1999, which claimed 38 lives, he had to prove himself as mayor of the community.

He only came to the state government this spring.

But it was above all federal issues that pulled the ÖVP down in what is sometimes mockingly called the “holy land of Tyrol”: On the one hand, there are the many allegations and affairs from Sebastian Kurz’s once so successful era.

Another federal issue that generated latent dissatisfaction was the erratic and unsatisfactory corona policy – ​​keyword compulsory vaccination, which was introduced, never enforced and then abolished without further ado.

While this issue has receded into the background, at least before the onset of winter, the general crisis of inflation and energy shortages is now adding to the burden on the government.