Election of the Federal President in Austria in 1986
The election of the Federal President in Austria in 1986 , the eighth popular election of an Austrian head of state , took place on May 4, 1986. The previous incumbent, Rudolf Kirchschläger , could not exercise a third term due to the constitution.
However, no candidate was able to achieve the required majority in the first ballot and thus a runoff election was necessary. This took place on June 8, 1986.
Starting position
The previous Federal President, Rudolf Kirchschläger , was unable to run again, as the constitution stipulated. The former Secretary General of the United Nations Kurt Waldheim , officially independent but supported by the ÖVP , Kurt Steyrer from the SPÖ , Freda Meissner-Blau from the Greens and Otto Scrinzi from the FPÖ, applied for his successor . After his unsuccessful attempt in the 1971 election, Waldheim applied for the presidency for the second time. The election campaign was overshadowed by the Waldheim affair .
Candidates and results of the ballot
The 1986 federal presidential election was the first in which there was no longer any general compulsory voting at the federal level. However, the actual abolition of compulsory voting was left to the federal states, some of which retained compulsory voting for years (the last until 2010). The turnout fell only slightly compared to the last presidential election in 1980 (from 91.6% to 89.5% in the first ballot in 1986).
Waldheim affair
The election campaign was accompanied by protests over alleged involvement in Nazi war crimes .
Ballot
| candidate | valid votes | proportion of |
|---|---|---|
| Kurt Waldheim | 2,343,463 | 49.6% |
| Kurt Steyrer | 2,061,104 | 43.7% |
| Freda Meissner-Blue | 259,689 | 5.5% |
| Otto Scrinzi | 55,724 | 1.2% |
Of the 5,436,846 eligible voters, 4,864,709 cast their votes, resulting in a turnout of 89.5%. 144,729 votes were considered invalid, which corresponds to 3% of the votes cast.
Second ballot
| candidate | valid votes | proportion of |
|---|---|---|
| Kurt Waldheim | 2,464,787 | 53.9% |
| Kurt Steyrer | 2,107,023 | 46.1% |
Of 5,436,846 eligible voters, 4,745,849 cast their votes, which results in a turnout of 87.3%. 174,039 votes were considered invalid, which corresponds to 3.7% of the votes cast.
Interpretation of the election result
The ÖVP candidate Waldheim was also able to win over a large number of SPÖ sympathizers. Especially among the workers and among young voters, the mood for the SPÖ-led federal government Sinowatz was very bad against the background of the crisis of nationalized industry . In this context, the historian Robert Kriechbaumer speaks of a “protest and turning point”.
Swearing in
Kurt Waldheim was sworn in on July 8, 1986 before the Federal Assembly.
