Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) achieves second consecutive election victory in Graz

The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) emerged as the clear winner in the municipal elections in the city of Graz, securing what has been described as its strongest electoral result to date and consolidating its position as the leading political force in the country's second-largest city.

According to the preliminary results, the KPÖ won 35.8% of the vote, improving significantly on its previous performance and finishing well ahead of the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). 

What kind of “communists” were elected in Graz?

When the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) won the local elections in Graz, the country's second largest city, we did not hide our concern about the political orientation of the party. “The KPÖ is affiliated to the Party of the European Left, the political alliance which includes social democratic and opportunist forces, like Greece's SYRIZA, Germany's Die Linke and Spain's United Left”, we wrote.

Eventually, the KPO and its Graz branch has received strong, but justified, critique by the Party of Labour (PdA) which was formed in 2013 by a Marxist-Leninist breakaway faction of the KPÖ who disagreed with the party's opportunist turn. According to the Party of Labour's chairman, Tibor Zenker, the KPÖ “is not a Marxist-Leninist party”, while concepts such as class struggle, socialist revolution and communism are included neither in the rhetoric, nor in the activities, of the KPO ("Das dunkelrote Graz", zeitungderarbeit.at).