Two former Salzburg party executives achieved great success in the Upper Austrian election campaign.

Rudi Hemetsberger, managing director of the Greens in Salzburg until December 2020, immediately came first in the mayoral election of the Attersee community on Sunday. Hemetsberger, who has lived in Attersee with his wife for five years, is now fighting for the mayor’s office on October 10th in the runoff election against the ÖVP candidate. The chances are good because SPÖ voters could tend towards the green candidate. In the municipal council election, the Greens came in second with 32.5 percent, behind the ÖVP (34.4 percent). Which is remarkable in that the Greens did not even compete in the town of Attersee six years ago. “We just founded ourselves and have seven mandates right from the start and are the second strongest party. The desire for change was noticeable, but we didn’t expect that to the extent”, says Hemetsberger. In future he will also be represented as a member of the Upper Austrian state parliament.

There was also a surprise in Bad Ischl. Hannes Mathes, party manager of the SPÖ in Salzburg from 2016 to 2020, competed against his former party with his own “Zukunft Ischl” list. With 34 percent Mathes came close, but still in first place ahead of the Social Democrats. In the mayoral election, the SPÖ candidate Ines Schiller was just ahead of the game with 37.6 percent. There will also be a runoff election with Hannes Mathes in two weeks’ time, who scored 36.6 percent on Sunday as a candidate for mayor.