| Election Name: | 2021 Graz local election |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Previous Election: | 2017 Graz local election |
| Previous Year: | 2017 |
| Election Date: | 26 September 2021 |
| Seats For Election: | All 48 seats in the Gemeinderat of Graz |
| Majority Seats: | 25 |
| Turnout: | 120,689 (54.0%) 3.4% |
| Leader1: | Elke Kahr |
| Party1: | Communist Party of Austria |
| Last Election1: | 10 seats, 20.3% |
| Seats1: | 15 |
| Seat Change1: | 5 |
| Popular Vote1: | 34,283 |
| Percentage1: | 28.8% |
| Swing1: | 8.5% |
| Leader2: | Siegfried Nagl |
| Party2: | ÖVP |
| Color2: | 63C3D0 |
| Last Election2: | 19 seats, 37.8% |
| Popular Vote2: | 30,797 |
| Seats2: | 13 |
| Seat Change2: | 6 |
| Percentage2: | 25.9% |
| Swing2: | 11.9% |
| Leader3: | Judith Schwentner |
| Party3: | The Greens – The Green Alternative |
| Last Election3: | 5 seats, 10.5% |
| Seats3: | 9 |
| Seat Change3: | 4 |
| Popular Vote3: | 20,593 |
| Percentage3: | 17.3% |
| Swing3: | 6.8% |
| Leader4: | Mario Eustacchio |
| Party4: | Freedom Party of Austria |
| Last Election4: | 8 seats, 15.9% |
| Seats4: | 5 |
| Seat Change4: | 3 |
| Popular Vote4: | 12,612 |
| Percentage4: | 10.6% |
| Swing4: | 5.3% |
| Leader5: | Michael Ehmann |
| Party5: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
| Last Election5: | 5 seats, 10.0% |
| Seats5: | 4 |
| Seat Change5: | 1 |
| Popular Vote5: | 11,325 |
| Percentage5: | 9.5% |
| Swing5: | 0.5% |
| Leader6: | Philipp Pointner |
| Party6: | NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum |
| Last Election6: | 1 seat, 3.9% |
| Seats6: | 2 |
| Seat Change6: | 1 |
| Popular Vote6: | 6,447 |
| Percentage6: | 5.4% |
| Swing6: | 1.5% |
| Map Size: | 250px |
| Mayor | |
| Before Election: | Siegfried Nagl |
| Before Party: | Austrian People's Party |
| After Election: | Elke Kahr |
| After Party: | Communist Party of Austria |
The 2021 Graz local election was held on 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the Gemeinderat of Graz.
The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) became the largest party for the first time in the city's history, winning 29% of votes cast. The previous governing party, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), fell from 38% to second place with 26%. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) also suffered losses and finished in fourth place on 11%, while The Greens moved into third with 17%. The Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) recorded a slight decline to 9.5%. NEOS – The New Austria won 5.4% and gained a second seat.[1] [2]
Siegfried Nagl, ÖVP mayor of Graz since 2003, announced that he would resign in light of his party's poor result. The KPÖ subsequently formed a coalition with the Greens and SPÖ, and Elke Kahr was elected mayor by the Gemeinderat on 17 November with 28 out of 46 votes. She became the first female mayor of Graz and first communist mayor of an Austrian city.[3] [4]
The Styrian constitution mandates that positions in municipal government (city councillors, de|Stadträten) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. As such, the government of Graz is a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualify for at least one city councillor.
In the 2017 election, the ÖVP made modest gains and retained its first-place position with 38%. The KPÖ remained the second largest party in Graz with 20%. The FPÖ finished in third place with 16%. The Greens suffered slight losses, while the SPÖ fell from third to fifth place with just 10% of the vote. NEOS won a single seat in the council. The city government was dominated by the ÖVP with three councillors, while the KPÖ won two councillors, and the FPÖ and Greens won one each.
The 48 seats of the Gemeinderat of Graz are elected via open list proportional representation with no electoral threshold.
| Name | Ideology | Leader | 2017 result | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | Councillors | ||||||
| ÖVP | Austrian People's Party | Christian democracy | Siegfried Nagl | 37.8% | ||||
| KPÖ | Communist Party of Austria | Communism | Elke Kahr | 20.3% | ||||
| FPÖ | Freedom Party of Austria | Right-wing populism Euroscepticism | Mario Eustacchio | 15.9% | ||||
| GRÜNE | The Greens – The Green Alternative | Green politics | Judith Schwentner | 10.5% | ||||
| SPÖ | Social Democratic Party of Austria | Social democracy | Michael Ehmann | 10.0% | ||||
| NEOS | NEOS – The New Austria | Liberalism | Philipp Pointner | 3.9% | ||||
In addition to the parties already represented in the Gemeinderat, eight parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot:
| Outlet | Date | ÖVP | KPÖ | FPÖ | Grüne | SPÖ | NEOS | Others | Lead | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 local election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 26 Sep 2021 | 25.9 | 28.8 | 10.6 | 17.3 | 9.5 | 5.4 | 2.4 | 2.9 | |
| Ifat | data-sort-value="2021-09-17" | 17 Sep 2021 | 34.1 | 25.4 | 11.8 | 15.0 | 10.1 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 8.7 | |
| unbekannt | data-sort-value="2021-09-05" | 5 Sep 2021 | 33.2 | 24.6 | 12.6 | 14.2 | 11.8 | 3.6 | – | 8.6 | |
| OGM | data-sort-value="2021-09-04" | 4 Sep 2021 | 35 | 20 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 15 | |
| bmm | data-sort-value="2021-08-16" | 16 Aug 2021 | 36 | 20 | 12 | 14 | 11 | 4.9 | 3.1 | 16 | |
| unbekannt | data-sort-value="2021-04-18" | 18 Apr 2021 | 32 | 22 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 10 | |
| Ifat | data-sort-value="2021-02-07" | 7 Feb 2021 | 37 | 18 | 15 | 16 | 9 | 5 | – | 19 | |
| OGM | data-sort-value="2021-02-07" | 7 Feb 2021 | 30 | 24 | 13 | 16 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 6 | |
| Ifat | data-sort-value="2021-03-31" | March 2020 | 38.4 | 17.7 | 15.1 | 16.2 | 9.6 | 3 | – | 20.7 | |
| 2017 local election | data-sort-value="2017-02-05" | 5 Feb 2017 | 37.8 | 20.3 | 15.9 | 10.5 | 10.0 | 3.9 | 1.5 | 17.5 |
| align=center colspan=9 | |||||||||
| Party | Votes | % | +/− | Seats | +/− | +/− | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor= | Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) | 34,283 | 28.84 | +8.50 | 15 | +5 | 3 | +1 | |
| bgcolor= | Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) | 30,797 | 25.91 | –11.88 | 13 | –6 | 2 | –1 | |
| bgcolor= | The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) | 20,593 | 17.32 | +6.81 | 9 | +4 | 1 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) | 12,612 | 10.61 | –5.25 | 5 | –3 | 1 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) | 11,325 | 9.53 | –0.52 | 4 | –1 | 0 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS) | 6,447 | 5.42 | +1.48 | 2 | +1 | 0 | ±0 | |
| dieBasis Graz (BASIS) | 1,025 | 0.86 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Pirate Party of Austria (PIRAT) | 468 | 0.39 | –0.70 | 0 | ±0 | 0 | ±0 | ||
| Responsibility Earth (ERDE) | 429 | 0.36 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | ||
| bgcolor= | Team HC Strache – Alliance for Austria (HC) | 296 | 0.25 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | |
| Graz in the Heart (GRAZ) | 226 | 0.19 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Free Citizens' Party Graz (FBP) | 161 | 0.14 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | ||
| WiR – Together for Graz (WIR) | 110 | 0.09 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | ||
| The Austrian PARTEI (DÖP) | 110 | 0.09 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 1,807 | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| Total | 120,689 | 100 | – | 48 | 0 | 7 | 0 | ||
| align=left colspan=2 | Registered voters/turnout | 223,512 | 54.00 | –3.39 | – | – | – | – | |
| align=left colspan=9 | Source: Stadt Graz | ||||||||
| District | KPÖ | ÖVP | Grüne | FPÖ | SPÖ | NEOS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data-sort-value="1" align=left | 32.9 | 21.5 | 19.5 | 9.8 | 5.5 | 8.3 | |
| data-sort-value="2" align=left | 33.6 | 22.4 | 22.4 | 6.6 | 6.4 | 6.2 | |
| data-sort-value="3" align=left | 30.2 | 23.6 | 22.3 | 7.0 | 7.1 | 7.4 | |
| data-sort-value="4" align=left | 34.4 | 19.8 | 14.2 | 12.2 | 12.6 | 4.2 | |
| data-sort-value="5" align=left | 37.8 | 18.8 | 13.2 | 14.0 | 10.9 | 2.7 | |
| data-sort-value="6" align=left | 37.3 | 20.3 | 15.6 | 10.2 | 9.2 | 4.6 | |
| data-sort-value="7" align=left | 24.1 | 28.0 | 11.8 | 16.4 | 11.9 | 4.9 | |
| data-sort-value="8" align=left | 27.0 | 27.8 | 20.5 | 9.0 | 8.7 | 5.1 | |
| data-sort-value="9" align=left | 22.0 | 33.5 | 19.1 | 8.9 | 7.6 | 6.8 | |
| data-sort-value="10" align=left | 22.2 | 32.0 | 19.5 | 9.6 | 8.3 | 5.8 | |
| data-sort-value="11" align=left | 22.8 | 32.9 | 21.4 | 7.8 | 5.9 | 7.1 | |
| data-sort-value="12" align=left | 24.1 | 29.5 | 18.6 | 9.5 | 10.5 | 5.6 | |
| data-sort-value="13" align=left | 25.6 | 28.4 | 10.0 | 17.3 | 13.1 | 3.5 | |
| data-sort-value="14" align=left | 31.6 | 22.2 | 14.8 | 12.7 | 11.2 | 5.0 | |
| data-sort-value="15" align=left | 28.2 | 25.3 | 10.3 | 17.6 | 12.4 | 3.6 | |
| data-sort-value="16" align=left | 25.7 | 29.3 | 10.7 | 16.2 | 11.5 | 4.3 | |
| data-sort-value="17" align=left | 26.1 | 28.3 | 9.4 | 18.2 | 10.3 | 5.0 | |
| Total | 28.8 | 25.9 | 17.3 | 10.6 | 9.5 | 5.4 | |
| Source: Stadt Graz |
The victory of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) was unexpected.[2] Elke Kahr herself expressed surprise at the result: "The preliminary election result is a huge success for us and more than gratifying. I didn't expect to gain that much." While conceding the election, mayor Siegfried Nagl quipped: "You can see that the clocks in Graz run differently than in the rest of Austria."[5]
The KPÖ were expected to take over the mayoralty as no practical majority could be formed to oppose them. The Greens were considered a likely partner, but a third party was required for a majority in the Gemeinderat. Although Nagl ruled out working with the KPÖ during the campaign, the new ÖVP leadership took a noticeably softer stance, raising the possibility of cooperation between the two. The SPÖ and NEOS were also possible partners. Elke Kahr previously voiced her preference for pragmatic cooperation on policy matters and "free play of groups in the Gemeinderat" rather than a fixed coalition pact; the process for electing the mayor could enable the KPÖ to win even without a majority.[6]
After a series of exploratory talks, the SPÖ voted on 22 October to start official coalition talks with the KPÖ and Greens.[7] The three parties presented their coalition program on 13 November. Elke Kahr described a "socially, climate-friendly and democratically transparent" Graz as their goal, with plans to expand community housing, access to transit and education, and transform the city centre into a car-free green space. Kahr will become mayor and reclaim the housing portfolio. Overall, the KPÖ will also hold the finance, health, housing, integration, and education portfolios, with Manfred Eber joining Robert Krotzer as the party's third city councillor. Judith Schwentner will become vice-mayor and councillor for transit and planning. The SPÖ, lacking any city councillors, will chair several committees in the Gemeinderat.[8]
The Gemeinderat convened for its constituent session on 17 November. Elke Kahr was elected mayor with 28 out of 46 votes, becoming the first female mayor of Graz and first communist mayor of an Austrian city. As one KPÖ deputy was absent from the session, Kahr received at least one vote from the opposition.[3]
In the FPÖ Graz there was a financial scandal after the election. As a result, the chairman and ex-vice mayor resigned.
Claudia Schönbacher takes over the FPÖ in Graz. This helps the judiciary by excluding the club chairman of the FPÖ in the municipal council from the club. Federal party chairman Herbert Kickl then expelled Claudia Schönbacher and her team from the Freedom Party. After that, Schönbacher reported several FPÖ politicians and the Austrian police found Nazi material on several FPÖ city politicians during house searches.
The FPÖ club in Graz municipal council is split, all FPÖ municipal council members found the club: (corruption) free municipal council club, KFGK. From 2022 there will only be one FPÖler in the Graz municipal council.
The investigations of the judiciary are still ongoing (April 2023).