2006 Austrian legislative election

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2006 Austrian legislative election
Flag of Austria (state).svg
  2002 1 October 2006 2008  

All 183 seats in the National Council
92 seats needed for a majority
Turnout78.5% (Decrease2.svg 5.8 pp)
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Alfred Gusenbauer 26.10.2008 (cropped).jpg W Schuessel7.jpg Alexander Van der Bellen1.jpg
Leader Alfred Gusenbauer Wolfgang Schüssel Alexander Van der Bellen
Party SPÖ ÖVP Greens
Last election36.5%, 69 seats42.3%, 79 seats9.5%, 17 seats
Seats won686621
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 1Decrease2.svg 13Increase2.svg 4
Popular vote1,663,9861,616,493520,130
Percentage35.3%34.3%11.1%
SwingDecrease2.svg 1.2 pp Decrease2.svg 8.0 pp Increase2.svg 1.6 pp

 Fourth partyFifth party
  HEINZ CHRISTIAN STRACHE.jpg Westi001 (cropped).jpg
Leader Heinz-Christian Strache Peter Westenthaler
Party FPÖ BZÖ
Last election10.0%, 18 seats
Seats won217
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 3New
Popular vote519,598193,539
Percentage11.0%4.1%
SwingIncrease2.svg 1.0 pp New

2006 Austrian legislative election - Results.svg
2006 Austria National Council election by voteshare.svg

Chancellor before election

Wolfgang Schüssel
ÖVP

Elected Chancellor

Alfred Gusenbauer
SPÖ

Legislative elections were held in Austria on 1 October 2006 to elect the 23rd National Council, the lower house of Austria's bicameral parliament.

The governing Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) suffered substantial losses and was unexpectedly overtaken by the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). The Greens became the third largest party for the first time, while the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) fell to fourth for the first time since its establishment in 1956. The Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), competing in its first national election, narrowly passed the 4% electoral threshold, despite opinion polling which indicated it would fall short.

After the 2002 election, the ÖVP formed government with the FPÖ; in 2005, the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) split from the FPÖ. Most of the FPÖ's National Council deputies joined the new party, which replaced the FPÖ as the junior partner in government. As a result of the 2006 election, the ÖVP–BZÖ coalition lost its majority. After three months of negotiations, the SPÖ and ÖVP formed a grand coalition under SPÖ leader Alfred Gusenbauer, which took office on 11 January 2007.

Contesting parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 22nd National Council.

NameIdeologyLeader2002 result
Votes (%)Seats
ÖVP Austrian People's Party
Österreichische Volkspartei
Christian democracy W Schuessel7.jpg
Wolfgang Schüssel
42.3%
79 / 183
SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria
Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs
Social democracy Alfred Gusenbauer 26.10.2008 (cropped).jpg
Alfred Gusenbauer
36.5%
69 / 183
FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria
Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs
Right-wing populism
Euroscepticism
HEINZ CHRISTIAN STRACHE.jpg
Heinz-Christian Strache
10.0%
18 / 183
GRÜNE The Greens
Die Grünen
Green politics Alexander Van der Bellen1.jpg
Alexander Van der Bellen
9.5%
17 / 183

Qualified parties

In addition to the parties already represented in the National Council, eight parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot. Three of these were cleared to be on the ballot in all states, five of them only in some.

On the ballot in all 9 states

On the ballot in some states only

Campaign

Austrian People's Party

The Austrian People's Party contested the election with Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel as its leader. It was the first federal election in Austria since 1970 the party entered as strongest party. Slogans used by the party in the campaign were "Secure. Austria" (Sicher. Österreich), "Austria. Here, we are well." (Österreich. Hier geht's uns gut.) and "Austria. Stays better." (Österreich. Bleibt besser.) They also attacked the Social Democratic Party, attesting them a lack of economic competence, repeatedly bringing up the so-called "BAWAG-Affair". The ÖVP cited a rising number of academics and shorter study periods, according to them because of the introduction of tuition fees, as some of their successes. They also capitalized on their women's policies, including being the first Austrian cabinet with half the ministers being women and appointing a woman as president of the Supreme Court for the first time.

Social Democratic Party of Austria

The Social Democratic Party was led by Alfred Gusenbauer in the election campaign. Themes of their campaign included a rising in youth unemployment, criticism of the Schüssel government's pension reform as well as the order of Eurofighter Typhoon fighters which they wanted to cancel in the case of them entering government. They also criticized the abolishment of the Ministry for Women and promised to abolish tuition fees for universities.

After coming in first in opinion polls for a long time, from March 2006 onwards the Austrian People's Party was ahead of them. The main reason for this was believed to be the "BAWAG-Affair": the Bank for Work and Economy (Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft), in which the Social Democratic dominated Austrian Trade Union Federation held a majority, was hurled into turbulences, leading to disputes in the party.

On 3 September 2006 the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Forum formed an electoral alliance with the goal to prevent a further ÖVP-led government.

Freedom Party of Austria

The Freedom Party of Austria campaigned with party leader Heinz-Christian Strache as their leading candidate.

Media considered the initiative "Stay free Austria" (Volksbegehren "Österreich bleib frei") as start of their campaign. Some points of their party programme they highlighted were: No accession of Turkey to the European Union and rejection of the European Constitution, no rising of Austria's contributions to the European Union, aggravation of citizenship laws, stopping immigration and fighting abuse of asylum.

The Greens

Leading candidate for the Green Party was party leader Alexander Van der Bellen.

The Greens started their pre-election campaign in May 2006 with the presentation of two "Black Books". The "Black Book black" concentrated on their criticism of the People's Party government, the "Black Book red" criticized the opposition performance of the Social Democratic Party. The Greens accused both parties of violations of human rights, with their main criticism being the 2005 reform of the asylum and foreigner's rights laws, to which the Social Democratic Party had agreed. Central to their campaign were promotion of alternative energy, improving the situation of working women, introduction of a demand orientated basic social security (Grundsicherung), an education reform and introduction of a point-system for immigration, favouring highly qualified immigrants. [1]

They stated abolishment of tuition fees for universities and cancelling the order for Eurofighter as conditions for entering a government.

Alliance for the Future of Austria

The BZÖ entered the campaign with Peter Westenthaler, former floor leader of the Freedom Party, as its leading candidate.

Peter Westenthaler was elected as party leader on a special party summit on 23 June 2006. [2] The party contested the election as "The Freedom-minded – Westenthaler's List – BZÖ" (Die Freiheitlichen – Liste Westenthaler – BZÖ). After the Freedom Party obtained a preliminary injunction, the BZÖ had to remove the phrase "The Freedom-minded" from its billboards – it remained on ballot papers nonetheless.

The party presented an election programme with the title "10 points against a shift to the left in Austria". Policies included: lowering of number of foreigners by 30%, limits for the share of non-native German speakers in classes and termination of the European Union's accession talks with Turkey.

On 25 September, six days before the election, Minister of Justice Karin Gastinger, deputy leader of the BZÖ and the party's leading candidate in Styria announced her leaving the party. As reason for her decision she stated that she "doesn't want to be active in a political movement that is xenophobic, that operates with fear". [3]

Minor parties

Communist Party of Austria

Leading candidate for the Communist Party of Austria was Mirko Messner. Hoping for a basic mandate in the constituency Graz, the Communist Party made heavy use of the Styrian politician Ernest Kaltenegger, who managed to secure one of the best election results in the history of the party when gaining 20% of the votes in the municipal elections in Graz. Points of their election campaign included a tax for the rich as well as higher minimal pensions and wages.

Dr. Martin's List

Hans-Peter Martin, MEP, announced in July 2006 that he intended to run with his own party. He concentrated on criticizing the established parties and trying to attract protest votes. Due to a limit on party’s short names on ballot papers to five letters the party ran as MATIN.

Opinion polling

Polling firmFieldwork date ÖVP SPÖ FPÖ Grüne BZÖ MATIN Lead
2006 legislative election1 Oct 200634.335.311.011.14.12.81.0
NEWS-Market 27 Sep 200638351011333
Profil-OGM 23 Sep 200637351011332
ÖSTERREICH-Gallup [ dead link ]22 Sep 200638351010343
NEWS-Market Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 20 Sep 20063934911335
ÖSTERREICH-Gallup 19 Sep 200638351011333
Profil-OGM Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 16 Sep 200638351010333
ÖSTERREICH-Gallup [ dead link ]12 Sep 20063935810344
IGF 11 Sep 20063934811345
ÖSTERREICH-Gallup [ dead link ]9 Sep 20063835712343
Profil-OGM Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 9 Sep 20063835910253
NEWS/Market Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 7 Sep 20063834811354
Kurier/Integral Archived 2012-02-06 at the Wayback Machine 3 Sep 20063735811452
ÖSTERREICH-Gallup [ dead link ]31 Aug 20063735711442
NEWS-Market Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 30 Aug 20063935711344
Profil-OGM Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 26 Aug 20063935711344
NEWS/Market 23 Aug 20063836710442
NEWS/Market Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 16 Aug 20064034711346
NEWS/Market Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 2 Aug 20063935611354
Kurier/Integral 16 Jul 2006393581244
Profil/OGM Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 15 Jul 2006403681234
NEWS/Market Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 12 Jul 20064136511335
2002 legislative election 24 Nov 200242.336.510.09.55.8

Results

2006 Austrian legislative election - composition chart.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Social Democratic Party of Austria 1,663,98635.3468−1
Austrian People's Party 1,616,49334.3366−13
The Greens 520,13011.0521+4
Freedom Party of Austria 519,59811.0421+3
Alliance for the Future of Austria 193,5394.117New
Hans-Peter Martin's List 131,6882.800New
Communist Party of Austria 47,5781.0100
EU Withdrawal – Neutral Free Austria 10,5940.230New
Socialist Left Party 2,2570.0500
Certainly – Absolutely – Independent, Franz Radinger1,5140.030New
Initiative 20005920.010New
List Strong3120.010New
Total4,708,281100.001830
Valid votes4,708,28198.22
Invalid/blank votes85,4991.78
Total votes4,793,780100.00
Registered voters/turnout6,107,89278.49
Source: BMI

Results by state

State SPÖ ÖVP Grüne FPÖ BZÖ MATIN OthersTurnout
Flag of Burgenland.svg  Burgenland 45.036.15.88.61.72.00.886.9
Flag of Karnten.svg  Carinthia 35.421.27.57.324.91.91.877.3
Flag of Niederosterreich.svg  Lower Austria 36.239.29.09.62.33.00.785.2
Flag of Oberosterreich.svg  Upper Austria 36.135.210.212.22.62.80.981.4
Flag of Salzburg, Vienna, Vorarlberg.svg  Salzburg 28.539.212.512.23.13.21.376.9
Flag of Styria.svg  Styria 37.237.57.910.43.21.91.978.6
Flag of Tirol and Upper Austria.svg  Tyrol 23.243.813.010.83.34.11.872.8
Flag of Salzburg, Vienna, Vorarlberg.svg  Vorarlberg 18.542.016.510.93.27.71.270.0
Flag of Wien.svg  Vienna 41.021.817.413.91.82.21.972.4
Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 35.334.311.111.04.12.81.378.5
Source: Austrian Interior Ministry

Summary

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References

  1. 2006 Green Party election programme (pdf) Archived May 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , in German, retrieved 2010-05-17
  2. NEWS: Westenthaler elected as party leader, in German, retrieved 2010-10-17
  3. Vorarlberg Online: Gastinger leaves BZÖ, in German, retrieved 2010-05-17

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