2025 Viennese state election

Last updated
2025 Viennese state election
Flag of Wien (state).svg
  2020 27 April 2025 [1] Next 

All 100 seats in the Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna
51 seats needed for a majority
All 13 seats in the state government
Turnout696,345 (62.7%)
Decrease2.svg 2.5%
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Michael Ludwig - Veranstaltung ,,1. Tag des Wiener Wohnbaus" (2).JPG Dominik Nepp - Pressekonferenz am 4. Sep. 2020 (2).JPG 2023 Judith Puhringer (52733358772) (cropped) (cropped).jpg
Candidate Michael Ludwig Dominik Nepp Judith Pühringer
Party SPÖ FPÖ Greens
Last election46 seats, 41.6%8 seats, 7.1%16 seats, 14.8%
Seats won432215
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 3Increase2.svg 14Decrease2.svg 1
Popular vote268,514138,76198,995
Percentage39.4%20.4%14.5%
SwingDecrease2.svg 2.2pp Increase2.svg 13.2ppDecrease2.svg 0.3pp

 Fourth partyFifth party
 
Candidate Selma Arapović Karl Mahrer
Party NEOS ÖVP
Last election8 seats, 7.5%22 seats, 20.4%
Seats won1010
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 2Decrease2.svg 12
Popular vote68,15265,820
Percentage10.0%9.7%
SwingIncrease2.svg 2.5ppDecrease2.svg 10.8pp

Wien 1, 2, 3 Platze 2025.png

Mayor and Governor before election

Michael Ludwig
SPÖ

Elected Mayor and Governor

Michael Ludwig
SPÖ

The 2025 Viennese state election was held to elect the members of the Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna on 27 April 2025. [1]

Contents

Background

In the 2020 state election, the SPÖ under mayor Michael Ludwig was able to improve its 2015 result after the downward trend of the last elections and again became the strongest party with 41.6%. The Greens under Birgit Hebein also improved and achieved their best result so far in Vienna with 14.8%. The NEOS under Christoph Wiederkehr also recorded small gains and reached 7.5%. After suffering its worst result ever in 2015, the ÖVP was now able to more than double its share of the vote and received 20.4%; their lead candidate was former Federal Finance Minister Gernot Blümel. The FPÖ under Dominik Nepp lost more than two thirds of its vote share and reached 7.1%, its worst result since the state and municipal elections in 1983. The newly founded Team HC Strache – Alliance for Austria received 3.3% of the vote, which was below the electoral threshold, and thus failed to get any seats, as did the small parties LINKS with 2.1%, the Beer Party with 1.8%, and SÖZ with 1.2%. Other small parties played no significant role. [2]

In 2020, a total of 1,133,010 people were eligible to vote, of whom 597,027 were women and 535,983 men. [3] Voter turnout fell sharply to 65.27%, but this was still a higher turnout than in the 2005 state election, which had the lowest voter turnout to date with 60.81%.

The share of absentee votes that ended up being counted reached a new high of 28.34% among all eligible voters in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, meaning that more than 43 percent of all votes cast were by absentee ballot. [4]

After exploratory talks between the mayoral party SPÖ with the ÖVP, the Greens and NEOS, the SPÖ surprisingly decided to start coalition negotiations with the NEOS instead of the previous coalition partner, the Greens. [5] A coalition with the ÖVP was rejected due to little agreement on topics. [6] A coalition with the FPÖ was rejected outright by the SPÖ. [7]

On 16 November 2020, the first contents of the new coalition agreement were presented. [8] On 24 November 2020, Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) was re-elected as mayor with 60 out of 100 votes – 54 of them from the new coalition – and the new city government was sworn in by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. [9]

A 5% threshold applies to state and municipal elections in Vienna. In the past, the NEOS have campaigned for lowering it to 3%. [10]

Statistics

A total of 1,109,936 Austrian citizens who are at least 16 years old on election day will be eligible to vote, a slight decrease from the 1,133,010 in the previous state election in 2020. The number of voting-eligible Austrian citizens is declining for years, despite Vienna growing by more than 110,000 people between 2020 and 2025, in large parts because of non-citizen immigrants. The voting-eligible citizen population is declining because of more deaths than births among citizens and a negative migration balance to other Austrian states and countries, which is not compensated by enough naturalisations of non-citizens. 36% of Viennese older than 16 are not eligible to vote in the election due to lack of Austrian citizenship.

A total of 265,328 absentee ballots were issued for the election, or 23.9% of eligible voters. The number is much smaller than absentee ballots requested for the 2020 election, because of the Coronavirus pandemic at the time - and therefore cannot be compared. It can be compared however to the Austrian legislative election in 2024 in Vienna, when 288,156 absentee ballots were issued in Vienna to eligible Austrian voters living in the city (excl. Austrians abroad) - or 25.9% of eligible Austrian voters living in Vienna. [11]

Contesting parties

The table below lists parties represented in the current Gemeinderat and Landtag.

NameIdeologyParty leader(s)2020 result
Votes (%)SeatsCouncillors
SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria
Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs
Social democracy Michael Ludwig 41.6%
46 / 100
7 / 13
ÖVP Austrian People's Party
Österreichische Volkspartei
Conservatism Karl Mahrer20.4%
22 / 100
2 / 13
GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative
Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative
Green politics Judith Pühringer
Peter Kraus
14.8%
16 / 100
2 / 13
NEOS NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum
NEOS – Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum
Liberalism Christoph Wiederkehr 7.5%
8 / 100
1 / 13
FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria
Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs
National conservatism
Right-wing populism
Dominik Nepp 7.1%
8 / 100
1 / 13

The following additional parties/lists will appear on the ballot in all 17 constituencies: [12]

  1. KPÖ und LINKS - Kommunistische Partei Österreichs und LINKS Wien - (short ballot abbreviation: KPÖ)
  2. Team HC Strache - Allianz für Österreich - (short ballot abbreviation: HC)

The following additional parties/lists will appear on the ballot only in some of the 17 constituencies:

  1. Soziales Österreich der Zukunft - (short ballot abbreviation: SÖZ) - (in 14/17 constituencies)
  2. Pro 23 für ein lebenswertes und zukunftsfittes Liesing - (short ballot abbreviation: PRO) - (in 1/17 constituencies)
  3. Plattform Obdachlos - Armut - Arbeitslos - Teuerung - (short ballot abbreviation: HERZ) - (in 1/17 constituencies)

Opinion polling

2025 Vienna Polling.svg

Recent opinion polling

The poll aggregator Europe Elects lists INSA, Market, Market/Lazarsfeld, Peter Hajek Public Opinion Strategies, Foresight Research Hofinger GmbH, Spectra, Unique Research GmbH, IFDD, DEMOX, OGM, GfK, IMAS, Triple M Matzka and IMAD in its database as reliable pollsters in Austria. [13]

Polling firm/ClientFieldwork dateSample
size
SPÖ ÖVP Grüne NEOS FPÖ HC KPÖ OthersLead
2025 state election27 Apr 202539.49.714.510.020.41.14.10.919.0
Market-Lazarsfeld/oe24.at [14] 26–27 April 202578437-3811-1213-148-922-234-52-315
OGM/ServusTV [14] 25–27 April 20251,00037.511.012.59.522.02.53.51.515.5
Foresight/Hajek/ORF/APA/ATV/Puls24 [14] 17–26 April 20253,76437.011.512.58.523.51.54.01.513.5
Market-Lazarsfeld/oe24.at [14] 17–20 April 20258453711139234314
IFDD/krone.at [14] 15–18 April 20251,00038111392224116
Market/derStandard.at [14] 7–10 April 2025802381112112124117
Unique Research/Heute/ATV/Puls24 [14] 3–10 April 20251,20039111292224117
OGM/Kurier [14] 4–9 April 202591739121292123218
Triple M/news.at [14] 28 March–7 April 20251,000401011102314117
IFDD/Vienna Green Party [14] 28 March–1 April 20251,00039121292124118
Market-Lazarsfeld/oe24.at [14] 27–31 March 20258363810129244314
IFDD/w24.at [14] 21–24 March 20251,00040111292124119
IFDD/krone.at [14] 11–15 March 20251,00040101292224118
2020 state election 11 Oct 202041.620.414.87.57.13.32.1 [a] 3.221.2

An unscientific, non-representative mock vote of both people who have Austrian citizenship and don't have Austrian citizenship (and therefore can't vote in the Viennese election) found that 47.7% would vote for SPÖ, 19.3% for the Greens, 14.3% for KPÖ, 8.1% for FPÖ, 5.2% for ÖVP, 4.7% for NEOS, and 0.7% for HC. About 60 percent of the 9.797 people voting in the unscientific, non-representative mock vote had Austrian citizenship. This so-called "passport doesn't matter"-poll was organized by the human rights NGO "SOS Mitmensch". [15] [16]

Older opinion polling

Polling firm/ClientFieldwork dateSample
size
SPÖ ÖVP Grüne NEOS FPÖ KPÖ BIER MFG OthersLead
Unique Research/HEUTE [14] 27–30 Jan 202580040101192341217
Market-Lazarsfeld/oe24.at [14] 20–22 Jan 2025800361216102041116
IFDD/W24 [14] 4–6 Dec 20241,000371112102243115
Market/DER STANDARD [14] 6–12 Aug 202477136151091937117
IFDD/W24 [14] 24–27 Jun 20241,00036121281947217
IFDD/W24 [14] 21–26 Mar 20241,00036111182148115
IFDD/W24 [14] 14–19 Dec 20231,02637111182137216
Unique Research/HEUTE [14] 2–5 Oct 202381335108823312112
IFDD/WH Media [14] 3–5 Jun 20231,00040131172036020
IFDD/WH Media [14] 1–7 Mar 20231,0004113117206221
IFDD/WH Media [14] 25–29 Nov 20221,000421197198423
IFDD/WH Media [14] 5–9 Sep 20221,00042111081682323
TCS-Heuritsch/n.a. [14] Jun 20221,0004710108184322
IFDD/WH Media [14] 25–28 Apr 20221,25047111091453121
IFDD/Kronen Zeitung [14] 21–25 Feb 20228004612981464123
OGM/Kurier [14] 22–24 Feb 202280247131181333219
Market/DER STANDARD [14] 3–7 Feb 20228054614131093528
IFDD/WH Media/W24 [14] 12–16 Dec 20221,2504512109141031
IFDD/Kronen Zeitung [14] 4–9 Oct 20211,000451311916629
Triple M Matzka/W24 [14] 19–27 Aug 20211,0044515111115330
Peter Hajek/SPÖ Wien [14] 16–20 Jul 2021800451610915529
Triple M Matzka/W24 [14] 27 May–4 Jun 20211,0184615111113431
IFDD/Kronen Zeitung [14] 15–22 Apr 2021803461691014530
Triple M Matzka/W24 [14] 26 Mar–5 Apr 20211,0144616111113330
Research Affairs/TZ Österreich [14] 6–8 Apr 2021500451791013628
Unique Research/SPÖ Wien [14] 19–25 Feb 202180046199912527
Triple M Matzka/W24 [14] 5–14 Jan 20211,009441812912526
OGM/Kurier [14] 18–19 Nov 20208004319131087 [b] 24
2020 state election 11 Oct 202041.620.414.87.57.12.1 [a] 1.84.5 [c] 21.2

Projected turnout

Sources: https://wien.orf.at/stories/3302404/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHjfFoRSRJs

Results

2025 Viennese state election
Landtag of Vienna 2025.svg
PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ)268,51439.38–2.2443–3
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ)138,76120.35+13.2422+14
The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE)98,99514.52–0.2815–1
NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS)68,15210.00+2.5310+2
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP)65,8209.65–10.7810–12
Communist Party of Austria and LINKS (KPÖ)27,6574.06+2.0000
Team HC Strache – Alliance for Austria (HC)7,5331.10–2.1700
Social Austria of the Future (SÖZ)5,7370.84–0.3600
Pro23 (PRO)5250.08+0.0300
Plattform Obdachlos (HERZ)1140.02new00
Total681,808100.001000
Valid votes681,80897.91–0.20
Invalid/blank votes14,5372.09+0.20
Total votes696,345100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,109,93662.74–2.53
Source: Viennese Government (Results tables) Viennese Government (Press release of the official certified results)

Notes

  1. HC: 3 %
  2. HC: 3.3 %

References

  1. 1 2 "Bombshell: Vienna Election to Take Place on April 27th". vienna.at. 2025-01-17. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
  2. "Vienna Overview" (in German). Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  3. "Vienna Election 2020: 1,494 polling stations for 1,362,789 voters" (in German). Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  4. "Vienna Overview Postal Voting" (in German). Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  5. "Viennese SPÖ enters into coalition negotiations with Neos" (in German). 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  6. "After exploratory talks: De facto rejection of red-turquoise in Vienna" (in German). 2020-10-21. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  7. "Choice of partner with consequences for the Confederation" (in German). 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  8. "Red-pink coalition presents first content" (in German). 2020-10-13. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  9. "New city government is sworn in" (in German). Archived from the original on 2020-11-24. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  10. "Neos want to lower barrier clause for Vienna City Council" (in German). 2015-12-02. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  11. "Wiener Gemeinderats- und Bezirksvertretungswahlen 2025" (in German). 2025-04-26. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
  12. "Wien-Wahl 2025: Wahlvorschläge wurden eingebracht". Presseservice der Stadt Wien (in German). 2025-02-28. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
  13. "Truth in Polling". Europe Elects. Europe Elects. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 "Vienna polls, @Wahlen_AT" (in German). Retrieved 2025-01-25.
  15. "Who would win the Vienna elections if foreigners were allowed to vote?". The Local Austria. 2025-04-24. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
  16. "Rekord: Beteiligung an Wiener Pass Egal Wahl vervierfacht!". www.sosmitmensch.at. Retrieved 2025-04-25.