Babler calls for a runoff: "We can only have one SPÖ if a candidate has more than 50% of the votes behind him"

2023-05-22 18:53:26

The candidate for the SPÖ presidency is overwhelmed by the result: “We have reignited the fire of this proud movement!”

Vienna (OTS) – “I am overwhelmed! We launched a campaign overnight, with no money, no apparatus, and no access to member data – and we got almost a third of the votes right away! It wasn’t just me, it was all of us together,” said Andreas Babler, candidate for the SPÖ presidency, on Monday when the results of the SPÖ member survey were announced.

In just a few weeks, Babler’s grassroots movement has shown how social democracy can be strengthened again. “We rekindled the fire of this proud movement,” says Babler. 100,000 members took part in the survey and showed that it is time for a real democratization of the SPÖ – this includes above all the presidential election.

“Now we have a result of the first round, but we don’t have a decision yet. We have three candidates, each with around a third of the votes. That’s why we absolutely have to go to a runoff election. There is no way around it – that is the condition for unity,” explained Babler on the sidelines of his election ceremony in front of more than 300 people.

“We can only unite the SPÖ if we let our members decide and if a candidate has a clear majority behind him. To claim power in this country. To prevent black and blue. To lower prices. In order to get away from petitioners: inside – we have rights and we have to fight for them together,” says Babler. “We started this journey together, so now we’re going to finish it together.”