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The 2024 European Parliament election in Austria will be held on 9 June 2024 as part of the 2024 European Parliament election. [1] This will be the seventh European Parliament election held in Austria, and the first to take place after Brexit.
The ÖVP was the winner of the previous election in 2019, while the SPÖ came in second and the FPÖ third. Trailing further behind were the Greens and NEOS. Other parties failed to win a seat in the new Parliament.
Compared to the last election, Austria is entitled to two more MEPs in this election: one assigned in 2020 due to the seat redistribution after Brexit, and one assigned in 2023 after a pre-election assessment of the Parliament composition based on the most recent population figures. The additional seat assigned in 2020 went to the Green Party. [2] The 20 members are elected through semi-open list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency with seats allocated through D'Hondt method. The electoral threshold is set at 4%. [3]
All people who have Austrian citizenship and a main residence in Austria, Austrian citizens without residence in Austria (Austrians abroad) and other Union citizens (if their main residence is in Austria) are entitled to vote in the European elections in Austria. In addition, those eligible to vote must turn 16 years old by election day at the latest and be registered in the voter register/European voter register of an Austrian municipality on the deadline date. The right to stand as a candidate in the European elections is available to all those people who are entitled to vote and have reached the age of 18 on election day. [1]
| Members of the European Parliament for Austria | |
|---|---|
| Delegation | (1995) |
| 4th term | (1996) |
| 5th term | (1999) |
| 6th term | (2004) |
| 7th term | (2009) |
| 8th term | (2014) |
| 9th term | (2019) |
The table shows the detailed composition of the Austrian seats at the European Parliament as of early 2024.
| EP Group | Seats | Party | Seats | MEPs | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European People's Party | 7 / 19 | Austrian People's Party | 7 | |||
| Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats | 5 / 19 | Social Democratic Party of Austria | 5 | |||
| Identity and Democracy | 3 / 19 | Freedom Party of Austria | 3 | |||
| Greens–European Free Alliance | 3 / 19 | The Greens – The Green Alternative | 3 | |||
| Renew Europe | 1 / 19 | NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum | 1 | |||
| Total | 19 | |||||
| Source: European Parliament | ||||||
According to preliminary numbers, 6.371.165 people are eligible to vote in the election, including 44.680 Austrian citizens with their main residence abroad and 45.091 EU citizens with their main residence in Austria.
Compared to the 2019 election, the total number of eligible voters decreased by 45.012, the number of Austrian citizens with their main residence abroad decreased by 43 and the number of EU citizens with their main residence in Austria increased by 6.419.
The final number of eligible voters will be published on May 17, 2024 after an objection period. [4]
Any party which intends to be on the ballot for the election either needs to submit the signature of 1 member of the European Parliament, or 3 members of the Austrian National Council, or 2.600 valid petition signatures of eligible Austrian voters by April 26, 2024 at 5pm at the Austrian Interior Ministry.
The following parties running in the European elections are represented in the National Council and the European Parliament:
| Party | European Party | Group | 2019 result | Top candidate | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ÖVP | Austrian People's Party | EPP | EPP | 34.6 | Reinhold Lopatka [5] | |
| SPÖ | Social Democratic Party of Austria | PES | S&D | 23.9 | Andreas Schieder [6] | |
| FPÖ | Freedom Party of Austria | ID | ID | 17.2 | Harald Vilimsky [7] | |
| GRÜNE | The Greens – The Green Alternative | EGP | Greens/EFA | 14.1 | Lena Schilling [8] | |
| NEOS | NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum | ALDE | Renew | 8.4 | Helmut Brandstätter [9] | |
The following other parties have announced their candidacy, are currently not represented in the National Council or in the European Parliament, but submitted the necessary amount of petition signatures to be placed on the ballot: [10]
| Party | European Party | Group | 2019 result | Top candidate | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KPÖ | Communist Party of Austria | PEL | GUE/NGL | 0.8 [lower-alpha 1] | Günther Hopfgartner [11] | |
| DNA | Democratic – Neutral – Authentic | unknown | unknown | — | Maria Hubmer-Mogg [12] | |
The following other parties have announced their candidacy, but failed to submit the necessary amount of petition signatures by the end of the deadline:
| Party | European Party | Group | 2019 result | Top candidate | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VOLT | Volt Austria | Volt | Greens/EFA | — | Nini Tsiklauri & Alexander Harrer [13] | |
| BESTE | Best Austria Bestes Österreich | unknown | unknown | — | David Packer [14] | |
| ÖXIT | EU-Exit for Austria EU-Austritt für Österreich | unknown [lower-alpha 1] | unknown | — | Christian Ebner [12] | |
| EUAUS | EU-Exit Party EU-Austrittspartei | unknown | unknown | — | Robert Marschall [16] | |
| OMA | Clean Politics starts here Saubere Politik beginnt hier | unknown | unknown | — | Julian Gredinger [17] | |
On May 7, 2024, the newspaper Der Standard published several allegations against the lead candidate of the Green Party, Lena Schilling. She is said to have falsely claimed that the partner of a former friend of hers was to blame for a miscarriage due to domestic violence. A legal cease and desist order was signed by Schilling. In another case, Schilling said she told friends and acquaintances that she had been harassed by a journalist from a private media company; An internal investigation by the company, including the affected chats, is said to have found no relevant misconduct. Schilling is also said to have fictitiously invented her own love affair with a television journalist, but on the other hand also attributed him to relationships with other Green Party politicians. Der Standard also reported on statements from Schilling's former climate activist colleagues who attested to her problematic and manipulative dealings with younger activists in particular. Ultimately, this would also have been a reason why "Schilling distanced herself from the youth council and the climate movement". [18]
On May 10, 2024, Der Standard reported that a young woman (which turned out to be Lena Schilling) allegedly was harassed in front of the U4 club in Vienna, which led to the resignation of the Green National Council member Clemens Stammler in October 2023. Stammler - who himself sees his resignation as unavoidable at the time - nevertheless criticized the fact that the green club leadership did not try to clarify the harassment allegations against him, but instead tried to remove the name and persona of Schilling, who was considered well-connected in the parliamentary club, "from history to keep". Rumors were even spread about the Green Party club leader, Sigrid Maurer, that she had harassed Schilling in an unpleasant and invasive manner, which both Maurer and Schilling denied. [19]
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | ÖVP EPP | SPÖ S&D | FPÖ ID | Grüne G/EFA | NEOS Renew | KPÖ Left | Others | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OGM | 7–8 May 2024 | 1,007 | 22 5 | 22 5 | 26 5 | 13 2 | 14 3 | 2 0 | 1 0 | 4 |
| Lazarsfeld Society | 6–8 May 2024 | 2,000 | 21 4 | 21 4 | 26 6 | 14 3 | 15 3 | 2 0 | DNA: 1 0 | 5 |
| Market | 22–25 Apr 2024 | 842 | 20 4 | 24 5 | 27 6 | 12 2 | 13 3 | 3 0 | 1 0 | 3 |
| Lazarsfeld Society | 22–24 Apr 2024 | 2,000 | 21 4 | 23 5 | 27 6 | 12 2 | 13 3 | 3 0 | 1 0 | 4 |
| Ipsos | 23 Feb – 5 Mar 2024 | 1,000 | 21.0 4 | 22.0 5 | 28.2 6 | 13.0 3 | 11.8 2 | 2.1 0 | 1.9 0 | 6.2 |
| Lazarsfeld Society | 26–28 Feb 2024 | 1,000 | 20 4 | 22 5 | 26 5 | 14 3 | 16 3 | 2 0 | — | 4 |
| Market | 5–7 Feb 2024 | 800 | 24 5 | 23 5 | 27 6 | 11 2 | 12 2 | 2 0 | 1 0 | 3 |
| Lazarsfeld Society | 29–31 Jan 2024 | 1,000 | 24 5 | 20 4 | 27 6 | 13 2 | 14 3 | 2 0 | — | 3 |
| OGM | 22–31 Jan 2024 | 2,076 | 22 5 | 21 4 | 26 6 | 14 3 | 12 2 | 2 0 | 3 0 | 4 |
| IFDD | 25–28 Jan 2024 | 1,000 | 21 4 | 24 5 | 27 6 | 14 3 | 9 2 | 3 0 | 2 0 | 3 |
| Lazarsfeld Society | 11–13 Dec 2023 | 1,000 | 22 5 | 22 5 | 30 6 | 13 2 | 9 2 | 2 0 | 2 0 | 8 |
| Peter Hajek | 22–29 Nov 2023 | 1,600 | 23 5 | 24 5 | 30 7 | 12 2 | 7 1 | 3 0 | 1 0 | 6 |
| IFDD | 1–4 Oct 2023 | 837 | 25 5/6 | 25 5/6 | 25 5/6 | 14 3 | 8 1 | — | 3 0 | Tie |
| 2019 legislative election | 29 Sep 2019 | – | 37.5 8 | 21.2 5 | 16.2 3 | 13.9 3 | 8.1 1 | 0.7 0 | 2.5 0 | 16.3 |
| 2019 European election | 26 May 2019 | – | 34.6 7 | 23.9 5 | 17.2 3 | 14.1 3 | 8.4 1 | 0.8 0 | 1.0 0 | 9.7 |
Projected turnout:
According to the OGM poll for the "Kurier" newspaper (May 7-8, 2024), a total of 66% of those surveyed said they are "certain" to vote. This would represent an increase of more than 6% compared to the 2019 election, which had 59.8% turnout. It would also be the highest turnout since the first EU parliament election in Austria in 1996, when turnout was 67.7%.
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