Andreas Babler addressed SPÖ members in an Instagram video on Tuesday, October 6, his first address since Sunday’s crisis meeting (ORF, SN, derStandard). He called the agreed “orderly transition” a “huge success”, says in his own words that he will remain party leader and vice chancellor for a few more weeks, and wants to continue as a minister “at the request of” the designated vice chancellor Marterbauer. According to derStandard, Holzleitner and Kucher wrote a letter to the party (“talked about each other too often”) and, according to the reports, do not intend to run at the extraordinary party congress in spring. At the same time, polls show new lows (14 percent).
How the SPÖ tells the story of the transition will help decide whether the base goes along with it. A positive framing meets falling poll numbers and criticism from the media and the opposition.
For you, nothing changes at first; changes at the top of a party do not change laws. It becomes relevant if the SPÖ’s stance on reforms such as social assistance changes.
The party leadership sees an orderly transition that gives time for a reorganization and does not endanger the government.
Critics, such as Exxpress and oe24, consider the label “huge success” not credible given 14 percent in the polls and 5 percent for Babler in the chancellor question.
A video is not a decision. What will be telling is whether the bodies formally confirm the dual leadership, whether Holzleitner and Kucher actually forgo a candidacy at the party congress, and whether the SPÖ acts reliably in government until then.
ORF, SN, derStandard, oe24, Exxpress (Oct. 6–7, 2026)
Politics · SPÖPress ✓ 5 outlets · video contents per ORF, SN, derStandard
Babler addresses members in an Instagram video and calls the transition a “huge success”
New since the previous days: Babler’s first direct address to the party since the crisis meeting, a letter from Holzleitner and Kucher, and a new poll with the SPÖ at 14 percent.
SPÖ leader Andreas Babler addressed party members in an Instagram video on Tuesday, October 6, for the first time since Sunday’s meeting (ORF, SN, derStandard). He called the agreed “orderly transition” a “huge success” and said the party’s vision was bigger than any one person. As a minister, he wants to continue “at the request of” the designated vice chancellor Markus Marterbauer.
Eva-Maria Holzleitner and Philip Kucher, the acting dual leadership, wrote in a letter to the party, according to derStandard, that people had “talked about each other too often”; according to the reports, neither intends to run themselves at the extraordinary party congress in spring. Exxpress and oe24 mock the phrase “huge success” in light of new poll numbers, with the SPÖ at 14 percent. According to the reports, Marterbauer has declared his willingness to take the vice chancellorship.
Open the story and DailyDrop’s take
By the numbers
14%SPÖ in a Lazarsfeld poll for oe24, previously 17%
5%Babler in the chancellor question, previously 8%
Spring 2027planned extraordinary SPÖ party congress
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Francis Halzen, a Belgian-American astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, for decisive contributions to the IceCube neutrino observatory and to the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin (taz, Spektrum, SRF, ZDFheute, Welt der Physik). He is the sole laureate, although around 450 people from 14 countries work on IceCube. The decision was announced for the first time by a woman, the Academy’s Secretary General Ellen Moons. In 2025, John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis were honored for quantum physics.
Neutrinos show researchers processes in the universe that no light reveals, for instance in the cores of distant galaxies. IceCube has shown that the block of ice at the South Pole is suited as a detector for this.
The discovery has no direct use in everyday life; it expands knowledge of the universe. DailyDrop has seen no Austrian connection to the prize.
The award honors the idea of using a natural phenomenon, ice, as a measuring instrument.
That only one person is honored although 450 collaborate is repeatedly criticized as a problem of the Nobel rules; a Nobel Prize can honor three people at most.
What is interesting is less the name than the principle: large research groups and a single laureate fit together poorly. The debate about this returns every year.
taz, Spektrum, SRF, ZDFheute, Welt der Physik (Oct. 6, 2026)
Science · Nobel PrizePress ✓ 5 outlets · citation per the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
2026 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Francis Halzen for detecting cosmic neutrinos
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics solely to the Belgian-American astrophysicist Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, report taz, Spektrum, SRF and ZDFheute. He is honored for his decisive contributions to the IceCube neutrino observatory and to the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.
Halzen recognized that the ice at the South Pole could be used as a gigantic detector for these particles. Around 450 people from 14 countries work on IceCube. For the first time, a woman announced the decision: Ellen Moons, the Academy’s new Secretary General. Last year the prize went to John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis for quantum physics.
Open the story and DailyDrop’s take
Word of the day
NeutrinosPhysicsExtremely light, electrically neutral particles that fly almost unhindered through matter; they reveal where in the cosmos especially energetic processes are taking place.