Austrian legislative election, 1956

Austrian legislative election, 1956
165 seats in the National Council of Austria ; 83 seats needed for a majority
Chancellor before election; Julius Raab ; ÖVP	Elected Chancellor; Julius Raab ; ÖVP

Last updated March 12, 2019

Parliamentary elections were held in Austria on 13 May 1956.^[1] The result was a victory for the Austrian People's Party, which won 82 of the 165 seats in the National Council. Voter turnout was 96.0%.^[2] Although the ÖVP had come up one seat short of an absolute majority, ÖVP leader and Chancellor Julius Raab retained the grand coalition with the Socialists, with the SPÖ leader Adolf Schärf as Vice-Chancellor.

Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in Central Europe comprising 9 federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of nine states is Vienna. Austria has an area of 83,879 km² (32,386 sq mi), a population of nearly 9 million people and a nominal GDP of $477 billion. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The terrain is highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 m (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 m (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other regional languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene.

The Austrian People's Party is a Christian-democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was founded immediately following the reestablishment of the Republic of Austria in 1945 and since then has been one of the two largest Austrian political parties with the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). In federal governance, the ÖVP has spent most of the postwar era in a grand coalition with the SPÖ. Most recently, it has been junior partner in a coalition government with the SPÖ since 2007. However, the ÖVP won the 2017 election, having the greatest number of seats and formed a coalition with the national-conservative Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Its chairman Sebastian Kurz is the youngest Chancellor in Austrian history.

The Chancellor of Austria is the head of government of the Austrian Republic. The chancellor chairs and leads the government, which is composed of him, the vice-chancellor and the ministers. Together with the president, who is head of state, the government forms the country's executive leadership.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Austrian People's Party	1,999,986	46.0	82	+8
Socialist Party of Austria	1,873,295	43.0	74	+1
Freedom Party of Austria	283,749	6.5	6	–8
Communists and Left Socialists	192,438	4.4	3	–1
Free Workers Movement of Austria	1,812	0.0	0	New
Party of Reason	284	0.0	0	New
Ergokratische Party	231	0.0	0	New
Austrian Patriotic Party	83	0.0	0	0
Austrian Middle Class Party	23	0.0	0	New
Parliamentary Representatives of the People prevented from voting, Non-Voters and Invalid Voters in Austria	7	0.0	0	New
Invalid/blank votes	76,831	–	–	–
Total	4,395,519	100	165	0
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Popular vote

ÖVP			45.96%
SPÖ			43.05%
FPÖ			6.52%
KuL			4.42%
Other			0.06%

Parliamentary seats

ÖVP			49.70%
SPÖ			44.85%
FPÖ			3.64%
KuL			1.82%

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References

↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p196 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p214

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[1] Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p196 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

[2] Nohlen & Stöver, p214