29 September 2013 Next → 2008 2011 57 seats, 29.26% 51 seats, 25.98% | Turnout 4,782,410 (74.91%) 2011 2005 51 seats, 25.98% 34 seats, 17.54% | |
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Legislative elections were held in Austria on 29 September 2013.
Contents
- Overview
- Parties and lists represented in the National Council
- Parties and lists that contested the election in all states
- Other parties and lists that contested the election only in the following states
- Ballot qualification for parties and lists
- Campaign
- Results by state
- Government formation
- References
All 183 seats in the National Council will be filled, with MPs elected by party-list proportional representation. For this election, the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) had proposed a reduction in the number of MPs from 183 to 165 as part of austerity measures, but despite overwhelming support from the Austrian populace, the proposals failed to pass in parliament.
Overview
The government is a grand coalition between Austria's two largest parties, the SPÖ and ÖVP, who rule with the SPÖ's Werner Faymann as Chancellor. Support for both governing parties has fallen marginally since the 2008 election. The Freedom Party (FPÖ) and Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) made significant gains in the previous election, but while the FPÖ gained support after the 2008 election, the BZÖ shrank after the death of its founder Jörg Haider and taking a turn toward liberalism. Additionally, nine of the BZÖ's 21 elected members to the National Council changed their party affiliation during the term: five members joined the Team Stronach, while four joined the FPÖ. Team Stronach, funded by Austrian-Canadian businessman Frank Stronach, has emerged as an anti-euro alternative and eventually started to hurt the FPÖ's standing in the polls. The Greens have solidified their position as the fourth-largest party in opinion polls.
Parties and lists represented in the National Council
Parties and lists that contested the election in all states
Other parties and lists that contested the election only in the following states
Ballot qualification for parties and lists
In order to contest the election federally, a party/list needs to collect 2.600 valid signatures from eligible voters ahead of the election.
Parties can also contest the election in individual states only. For this, they have to collect the following numbers of signatures:
Parties can collect the signatures between July 9 and August 2. The state and federal election commissions will validate the signatures and announce the qualified parties on August 8.
Campaign
Issues included corruption scandals across the main parties and Austria's relative financial stability facing a probable crisis.
Results by state
The losses for the government parties (both the SPÖ and the ÖVP had the worst election result in history) resulted in strong gains for the far right, the election was seen as strong for the far-right and in support of Eurosceptics.
Especially in Carinthia, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) benefited most from the BZÖ's weakness since Jörg Haider's death in autumn 2008: the FPÖ's share of the vote rose from 7.6% to 17.9%, and they became the second strongest party in the state. In contrast, the state's former leading party BZÖ came fifth, with their share falling from 38.5% to 10.8%, while the SPÖ came first in Carinthia with 32.4%.
However, in Styria the FPÖ came first with 24.0%; the SPÖ were second with 23.8%.
In the other states no major changes of the leading party occurred.
Government formation
The "grand coalition" of SPÖ and ÖVP have retained their majority, although other coalitions could still be possible. While the SPÖ are keen to renew the coalition, the ÖVP are also considering the possibility of a coalition with the FPÖ and another smaller party. On October 14, the SPÖ and the ÖVP agreed to start coalition talks with each other. On December 16, the second Faymann cabinet was formed.