Sometimes the course of history can be broken down to such little things that you can get dizzy. This happened last Saturday, at the party congress of the Austrian Social Democracy in Linz. There, the SPÖ elected its new chairman, the governor of Burgenland, Hans Peter Doskozil, competed against the mayor of Traiskirchen, Andreas Babler.

There were twelve ballot boxes, 596 delegates cast a valid vote, it was initially said. During the counting, Babler is said to have won almost all the ballot boxes, but that didn't make anyone suspicious – nor did the fact that the counted votes only resulted in 595 instead of 596. In the end, however, the winner was Doskozil, announced the head of the electoral commission, who, by the way, is also the partner of Doskozil's campaign chief.

Voices swapped

In the meantime, we know that the employee who transferred the counted votes into an Excel file made a mistake. A "technical error" is said to have caused Babler's and Doskozil's voices to be swapped. So the real winner is Babler, it was announced on Monday.

As unbelievable as the story is, its impact is likely to be great. It is not only in Austria that people laugh (and cry) about this farce, it even makes international headlines. Internally, fierce rumours are already being spread in the SPÖ, ranging from manipulation to disinterest in a proper count, as long as the winner fits. The party is divided into two or three camps, which were already suspicious of each other before the counting meltdown.

More on the subject

  • Election farce at SPÖ:Austria, the sloppy republicA commentary by Oliver Das Gupta, Vienna

  • Embarrassing blunder at party congress: Austria's Social Democrats make a mistake in the election of chairman

Are new elections coming?

This is an opportunity for the ÖVP. The chancellor's party is in third place in the polls, well behind the FPÖ, but close on the heels of the SPÖ. Now, as long as the debacle is fresh, she would probably have a good chance of catching up or even passing by. The election campaign would be like the Olympic hundred-meter race starting while an athlete is still injured on the ground. One can be sure that the ÖVP strategists have already commissioned a number of polls to gauge the mood.

And who can estimate how the Excel error will affect the Babler era? In any case, the new SPÖ leader was robbed of his momentum; instead of a surprising victory at the party congress, his presidency begins with the biggest breakdown of social democracy in years. Who knows whether Babler would not have catapulted the SPÖ up a few percentage points as a fresh face in federal politics without an Excel breakdown?

Thus, this Excel error, even if it has been corrected, has enormous consequences – in any case, it will go down in the history of this republic.

Social Media Moment of the Week

On Twitter, the SPÖ chaos has triggered an avalanche of memes – and the satirical portal »Tagespresse« has announced its intention to cease operations.

Stories we recommend to you today:

  • Election farce at the SPÖ: The reversed result is the next farce after numerous political scandals in Austria. The commentary.

  • Revelations from Strache's ex-bodyguard: In the podcast, Oliver Ribarich talks about the turbulent end of the FPÖ leader's turbulent career and what happened to him afterwards.

Yours sincerely
, Fabian Schmid, Editor-in-Chief of DER STANDARD

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