Alexander Van der Bellen relies on crowdfunding and knows that the Greens have his back.
Is the re-election of the incumbent Federal President a logical matter? Yes, if you look at the recent past: Heinz Fischer received 79 percent of the votes when he was re-elected in 2010, Thomas Klestil 63 percent in 1998. No, if you look back a little further: Franz Jonas was only very narrowly re-elected in 1971 with 52 percent, the opposing candidate at the time was Kurt Waldheim. And Adolf Schärf’s 55 percent in 1963 is not really a great result for an incumbent president.
Alexander Van der Bellen, who does not have a large party behind him, must therefore take the election campaign seriously, even if he is considered the clear favorite. The greatest danger for him is probably that his election victory is considered certain and that many people therefore choose another candidate in the first ballot for tactical reasons. In any case, the association Together for Van der Bellen is already collecting donations. In 2016 he had already organized a successful crowdfunding and collected around three million euros in donations from private individuals and companies. The Greens contributed 4.8 million at the time. This time, his former party has pledged 500,000 euros in support – for now.
(“Die Presse”, print edition, June 19, 2022)