SPÖ Head Rendi-Wagner To Step Down After 3rd Place Finish

Head of the centre-left main opposition Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) Pamela Rendi-Wagner has said that she will stand down as party leader, head of the SPÖ in the National Council, and will not stand as a candidate in the upcoming extraordinary party conference taking place in Linz in June.

• In an advisory vote among party members, of which the results were released on 22 May, Rendi-Wagner came in third place with 31.4% of the vote behind Governor of Burgenland Hans Peter Doskozil (33.7%) and Traiskirchen mayor Andreas Babler (31.5%).
• Liam Hoare at Moment Magazine: "Rendi-Wagner confirms Hans Peter Doskozil and Andreas Babler have been invited to today’s sitting of the SPÖ’s national executive committee to decide the best way forward with the party’s leadership contest."
• Rendi-Wagner has served as head of the SPÖ since 2018 and oversaw the party's worst-ever result in the 2019 election. In the three-way election contest she represented the moderate centre-left, with Doskozil from the anti-immigration hardliner wing of the party, while Babler represents the more leftist elements.
• With Rendi-Wagner out of the contest the party will now undoubtedly have a shift in stance, but whether this is leftwards or rightwards will be dependent on talks in the national executive and the vote of delegates at the early-June conference.