The Austrian National Council election took place on Sunday, with the results being announced earlier today. Here you can learn about the gains, the losses and who will run Austria for the next five years.
The Results in Full:
- ÖVP – 31.5% (61 Seats)
- FPÖ – 27.1% (53 Seats)
- SPÖ – 26.8% (52 Seats)
- NEOS – 5.0% (9 Seats)
- PILZ – 4.1% (8 Seats)
- Greens – 3.4% (0 Seats)
Sebastian Kurz – the EU’s youngest Leader
The ÖVP (Austrian Peoples’ Party) confirmed their victory in Sunday’s election. They managed to increase their vote share on the last election by 7.4%, bringing it up to 31.4%. This was enough to win them the election and seek to form a coalition government. The SPÖ, (Social Democratic Party of Austria) came second, winning 27.4% of votes, largely retaining their vote share from 2013. Sebastian Kurz, therefore, replaces Christian Kern as the Austrian Chancellor.
Learn about how the Austrian National Council election system works!
The biggest losses were felt by the Greens, who failed to reach the 4% minimum to be granted any seats in the national council. One of the main reasons behind their fall from 12.42% is a man called Peter Pilz. He was one of the founders of the Austrian Green party and has recently split to form his own party – PILZ.
PILZ managed to gain 4.1% of the popular vote, thereby gaining 8 seats in Parliament. The relatively new, Liberal Party – NEOS (The Ned Austria) managed 5%, receiving 9 seats accordingly.
A Black-Blue Coalition in the Austrian National Council
The success of the ÖVP is largely due to the new head of the party – Sebastian Kurz. The 31-year old took over the chairmanship of the party in May and fought an election campaign largely tailored to his style of leadership and debate. His ability to sway right-wing voters somewhat damaged the new populist party – FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria). The FPÖ, however, still managed to gain 13 seats on 2013. Many of their voters chose to support a new, young and populist leader in the form of Kurz at the head of an old and traditional party.
Both parties share a similar electorate and share similar values and a Black-blue coalition looks extremely likely. Interestingly, the head of the FPÖ commented that 60% of Austrians had voted for the FPÖ’s campaign – a calculation that merged the Black and Blue parties together without a second thought.
Which coalition there will be is still open. A grand coalition of Black-Red would be able to form a majority government of 58.3% while a Black-Blue coalition would yield 58.6%.
We will keep you posted as the announcements are made.