Landtag (Austria)

Parliament
position	Legislative body of a federal state
State authority	legislative branch
founding	1861 or November 10, 1920 , Burgenland: 1921
Seat	Bregenz , Eisenstadt , Graz , Innsbruck , Klagenfurt , Linz , Salzburg , St. Pölten , Vienna
Chair	President of the Landtag
Guarantee of existence	Art. 44 para. 3 (federal principle), state constitutional regulations
Website	-

Landtag are the state parliaments of the nine Austrian federal states. The members of the state parliaments are periodically elected in general, equal, direct, secret and personal elections based on proportional representation by the citizens entitled to vote who are resident in the respective federal state. The state parliament in turn elects the state government . The party with the largest number of votes, more precisely the state parliament club with the largest number of members , usually, but not necessarily, provides the governor .

According to Article 15 paragraph 1 of the Federal Constitutional Law , the Landtag is responsible for legislating in areas that are not expressly assigned to the Federation. The federal constitution, however, assigns extensive powers to the federal government. The most important matters in practice remain for the state parliaments mainly building law, child and youth protection, nature and environmental protection, hunting, fishing, agriculture, tourism, public welfare and welfare and state taxes.

The term of office of the Landtag is six years in Upper Austria and five years in all other countries.

Competencies

The state parliament in the political system of the states

The legislative powers of the states are those that are not expressly assigned to the federal government in the federal constitution . The state parliament is accordingly responsible for the legislation in the following areas: youth protection, community organization, organization of state authorities, kindergarten, nature and landscape protection, building law, spatial planning, housing subsidies, sewage and waste disposal, roads (except federal highways ), land traffic with agricultural and forestry Land, foreign property traffic, beverage tax, hunting and fishing, sports, ski school and mountain guides, social assistance and welfare services, moral police, disaster relief and rescue services, cultural funding, agricultural funding and hospital services.

The Landtag is also primarily responsible for state constitutional legislation; however, the state constitution must be in accordance with the federal constitution . If there are legal disputes between the federal government and the state, the Constitutional Court is called upon to make a decision. Simple federal law does not automatically take precedence over simple state law.

history

The state parliaments of the Austrian federal states have their origins in the state assemblies of the Habsburg states, which were permanently established everywhere in the 15th century. After the revolution of 1848/1849 dissolved, the state parliaments were restored with the so-called February patent 1861 in a modified form and existed until 1918. Some of the members had their seat by office or birth, some of the deputies were elected, with the district the number of eligible voters remained very limited and women were fundamentally excluded.

Since the spring of 1919, the state parliaments have been elected by the people using proportional representation. See the information on the elections in Lower Austria , Upper Austria , Salzburg , Styria , Tyrol and Vorarlberg . Due to the unclear southern border and partial occupation of the country by South Slav troops, a fully democratically elected state parliament could not be established in Carinthia until 1921.

The Landtag of the Province of Vienna, which was separated from Lower Austria on November 10, 1920, was created on the same day by the Federal Constitution and, with the exception of the chairpersons, is the same person as the Vienna City Council , the Landtag of the Burgenland that came to Austria in the course of 1921 by a constitutional law of January 25, 1921. The federal states of Vienna and Lower Austria also had a joint state parliament from November 10, 1920 to December 31, 1921 according to the constitution, but this remained largely inoperative (see Separation Act ).

Up until June 30, 2012, the Federal Government had a suspensive (suspensive) veto against legislative resolutions of the state parliament; this could be overcome by the state parliament by means of a persistent resolution . This regulation corresponded to the right of veto granted to the Federal Council in federal legislation against most of the decisions of the National Council . The abolition of the federal government's right of veto corresponded to a demand by the federal states and took place within the framework of the 2012 amendment to administrative jurisdiction with effect from July 1, 2012.

Distribution of seats in the state parliaments

Ruling parties in the state parliament

state	last choice	Seats	ÖVP	SPÖ	FPÖ	Green	NEOS	Other	Wild Abg.	Electoral term years	next choice ^*
Burgenland Burgenland	2020	36	11	19th	4th	2				5	2025
Carinthia Carinthia	2018	36	6th	18th	9			TK 3		5	2023
Niederosterreich Lower Austria	2018	56	29	13	7th	3	3		1	5	2023
Oberosterreich Upper Austria	2015	56	21st	11	18th	6th				6th	2021
Salzburg Salzburg	2018	36	15th	8th	7th	3	3			5	2023
Styria Styria	2019	48	18th	12	8th	6th	2	KPÖ 2		5	2024
Tyrol Tyrol	2018	36	17th	6th	5	4th	2	FRITZ 2		5	2023
Vorarlberg Vorarlberg	2019	36	17th	4th	5	7th	3			5	2024
Vienna Vienna	2015	100	7th	44	30th	10	5	HC 4		5	2020
total		440	141	135	93	41	18th	11	1