“We made history today and entered the state parliament with NEOS,” said Meinl-Reisinger. The two mandates Felix Eypeltauer and Julia Bammer would “bring the politics of a new generation and real control to Upper Austria.”
For NEOS Upper Austria the result means two things: “First, that work for the state parliament will start tomorrow. Second, that this result gives us the strength to provide the best childcare, courageous climate policy and critical control in Upper Austria,” said Meinl- Travel hunger in one broadcast. The success in Upper Austria also gives NEOS a tailwind for the work throughout Austria.
NEOS conquer seventh state parliament
After the first attempt six years ago, which failed with 3.47 percent, they have now made it over the four percent hurdle. Also in their second attempt, they succeeded in entering the sixth state parliament in Styria in 2019. In Burgenland, however, in 2020 they remained well below four percent even with the second start. There is also no pink in the state parliament in Carinthia.
In Upper Austria, NEOS and its new top candidate Felix Eypeltauer had to tremble for a long time on election day. In the projections, they were initially shown below four percent, then just above it. The situation was much clearer from the start for a second small party that moved into the state parliament together with the Pink: The newly founded vaccination skeptics party MFG surprised in the first projections with well over four percent – and will also get one more mandate than NEOS .
NEOS will not have the next chance to expand their presence at state level until 2023, when Carinthia (where they only got a meager 2.14 percent in 2018) is due for another state election. But to a large extent, the party founded by Matthias Strolz in October 2012 (Beate Meinl-Reisinger is now party leader) has already established itself very well not only in the federal government, but also at the state level. The hopes for big leaps were not always fulfilled – but at least NEOS were able to gain almost everywhere where they competed for the second time. They have firmly established themselves in the National Council, in their third election in 2019 they achieved an increase of 2.80 to 8.10 percent.
This federal election result has so far only been topped in one state election: In Vorarlberg, Strolz ‘home, 8.51 percent voted pink two years ago. In Salzburg they weren’t as strong in 2018 – but 7.27 percent gave the NEOS their first coalition, together with the ÖVP and the Greens. The Greens completely ousted the Pink (7.47 percent) in Vienna last year, where the SPÖ switched to them. The NEOS now have a regional councilor in Salzburg, a city councilor in Vienna – and (including Upper Austria) 23 of the 440 state parliament members (or local councilors in Vienna) throughout Austria.
