Chancellor’s visit for the ÖVP, restrained to cheerful mood in the SPÖ: the parties all celebrated the election night with beer and spritzers, but very differently.
After the sobering result of the SPÖ was clear, the first rumors arose: will the election party be canceled? Doesn’t LH Peter Kaiser show up at all anymore? “No,” was the clear answer from state manager Andreas Sucher: Of course we would meet for a beer, we couldn’t resist. And the atmosphere slowly got better, and the state governor was greeted with chants. Party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner stopped by and the celebration was civilized: Puntigamer to toast, pats on the back for the emperor, talks at standing tables, no music and danced, the “GruBär” heated up the party-goers, the Lesachtal Deputy Mayor Bernhard Knotz played the accordion. Top candidate Martin Gruber was celebrated. Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who was welcomed with chants of “Our Chancellor, our Chancellor, hey, hey hey”, also came to support him. He thanked officials and voters and congratulated Gruber: “It’s the day of Martin Gruber and the People’s Party. It’s a good day for the Carinthian People’s Party and therefore also for Carinthia!” The Carinthia team, who already in the early afternoon decorated the “teatro” with yellow balloons, was pretty sure of their party. In the evening, however, there was little atmosphere and the restaurant remained sparsely frequented. At a later hour, when Klagenfurt’s mayor Christian Scheider was still there, top candidate Gerhard Köfer had already said goodbye. A few meters further, in the corso on Pfarrplatz, blue and white balloons adorned the front door: Erwin Angerer and the entire FPÖ celebrated their slight gain.
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