State election in Vorarlberg 2009
The state election in Vorarlberg on September 20, 2009 was the 14th election of the Vorarlberg state parliament since 1945. In this election, which became necessary because the five-year term of the 28th Vorarlberg state parliament expired in 2009, all 36 members were re-elected . Due to a falling out between the two former governing parties ÖVP and FPÖ, Governor Herbert Sausgruber formed an ÖVP sole government after the election for the first time in Vorarlberg's history in the Second Republic .
In the state elections, the ÖVP Vorarlberg emerged again as the strongest party with an absolute majority of votes and seats, despite losses, while the SPÖ suffered considerable losses and recorded the worst election result of all time. The biggest winner of the election was the FPÖ , which managed to double its share of the vote and was the only party to win seats in the state parliament. The Greens were also able to record slight gains, but fell short of their own expectations in terms of mandates and votes.
In the state elections in 2009, 261,132 eligible voters were allowed to vote. Of these, around 30,000 belonged to the group of young voters, around 9,000 16 and 17-year-olds were entitled to vote in a Vorarlberg state election for the first time due to the changes in the electoral law.
initial situation
After the regional elections in Vorarlberg in 2004 , the dominant Vorarlberg People's Party had an absolute majority of votes and mandates. 21 of 36 members of the state parliament belonged to the People's Party. Nevertheless, after the election, the ÖVP entered into a new government coalition with the FPÖ. With the loss of 6 seats in 2004, the Freedom Party suffered massive losses.
For the first time since 1989, the opposition Social Democrats of the SPÖ were able to become the second largest parliamentary group in the state parliament in the previous state elections. As the smallest opposition party, the Greens emerged stronger from the election, winning two seats.
Initial political situation
Even in the run-up to the election, the incumbent Governor Herbert Sausgruber , the top candidate of the ÖVP, announced several times in interviews that if the absolute majority of mandates were lost (i.e. if more than 3 mandates were lost), the personal consequence would no longer be for the office at the head of the state government to be available. Accordingly, the election campaign of the People's Party was aimed entirely at Sausgruber and a “continuation of the successful Vorarlberger Weg” was advertised.
On August 22, 2009, the FPÖ started the state election campaign in Hohenems with its top candidate Dieter Egger . He made the statement that the director of the Jewish Museum in Hohenems , Hanno Loewy , was a “Jew in exile from America” with a “highly subsidized museum” that was just as little concerned with domestic politics as the director of the Bregenz Festival , David Pountney . Before that, the two of those addressed by Egger had questioned the FPÖ's election campaign posters, as they were advertised several times with the term “local”. Egger's statements subsequently became known as "Exile Jew" -sayers . Governor Sausgruber then asked Egger to retract his statement, as this would have exceeded a limit and otherwise he would no longer be eligible for renewed participation in government. When Egger refused to withdraw his statements or to apologize for them and insisted on his opinion, Sausgruber declared on August 24th that the People's Party would not continue the coalition with the FPÖ after the election if there was a clear voting mandate.
Suffrage
For the election of the Vorarlberg state parliament in 2009, whoever was automatically entitled to vote
- had at least reached the age of 16 on election day, September 20, 2009,
- his main residence at the reference date, June 30, 2009, had in Vorarlberg and the Austrian citizenship had
- and was not excluded from the right to vote (automatically by sentencing to more than a year in prison ).
In addition, people from abroad in Vorarlberg were also entitled to vote on request (see section on changes to the right to vote ).
Innovations in the right to vote
The right to vote for 16- and 17-year-olds as well as postal voting came into effect for the first time in the state elections in 2009 due to the changes in voting rights in 2008. These two changes were necessary due to a federal law , which was part of the coalition agreement of the Gusenbauer government and which also had an impact on state law, as this may not contradict federal law.
In addition, Vorarlbergers from abroad were also eligible to vote in the state election for the first time. These are people who have relocated their main residence directly from Vorarlberg abroad and are still holders of Austrian citizenship. The prerequisite, however, was that the main residence had to be abroad as of June 30, 2009 and that the relocation of the residence had not been more than ten years ago. Auslandsvorarlbergers were not automatically entitled to vote, but had to submit an application for inclusion in the so-called electoral register, which forms the basis for the electoral register , before the election .
Constituencies and districts
Elections were made in all 96 municipalities, which were divided into four electoral districts. These electoral districts correspond to the administrative districts of Bludenz ( constituency Bludenz ), Bregenz ( constituency Bregenz ), Dornbirn ( constituency Dornbirn ) and Feldkirch ( constituency Feldkirch ). All parties running for election ran in all four electoral districts.
As a rule, an electoral district corresponds to one municipality. Within a municipality, however, several electoral districts with corresponding district election authorities can also be set up by resolution of the municipal electoral authority. For example , a total of 41 district electoral offices were set up in the largest municipality in the state, the city of Dornbirn . Smaller communities, such as Dünserberg or Röns , on the other hand, managed with just one electoral district.
Parties available for election
In order to be able to stand as an independent list or party in the election to the Vorarlberg state parliament in 2009, it was necessary to have the district election proposals supported by at least 100 people in the constituency who were eligible to vote. If this support could not be proven by August 21, 2009 at the latest, the application to participate in the state elections was rejected by the electoral authority.
In its meeting on August 19, 2009, the state electoral authority concluded the election proposals and determined 8 parties as admissible for the election to the Vorarlberg state parliament in 2009. In addition, the list positions were determined and the official party names determined. The data mentioned below are arranged in the same way as they appeared on the ballot paper.
Parties already represented in the state parliament
- 1. ÖVP Vorarlberg - Governor Dr. Herbert Sausgruber (ÖVP)
In the 2009 election, the ÖVP ran again with the previous Governor Herbert Sausgruber as the top candidate. For the People's Party, this election was about defending the absolute majority of votes and mandates.
- 2. SPÖ Vorarlberg - Member of Parliament Michael Ritsch (SPÖ)
The Social Democrats nominated Michael Ritsch , the new chairman of the state party, as the top candidate for the state election. In the 2004 election, Elke Sader went into the election campaign as the leader of the red list.
- 3rd Vorarlberg Freedom Party - FPÖ (FPÖ)
From the ranks of the FPÖ, the state party chairman Dieter Egger was nominated as the top candidate. He was regional councilor in the previous state government of Sausgruber III .
- 4. The Greens - Green Alternative Vorarlberg (GREEN)
As in previous years, the Vorarlberg Greens selected Johannes Rauch as the top candidate for the state elections. In the previous state elections in 2004, Rauch was able to lead the Greens to one of the best results in the history of the green state organizations.
Parties not yet represented in the state parliament
- 5. Lapwing
Harder Helmut Putz and Nicole Metzler ran their own, independent list of citizens under the name Kiebitz .
- 6. BZÖ Vorarlberg (BZÖ)
The Vorarlberg BZÖ fought with top candidate Wolfgang Maurer for entry into the state parliament. The BZÖ ran for the first time in the state elections in Vorarlberg. The declared goal was to exceed the 5 percent hurdle that is required in order to be able to move into the state parliament.
- 7. The Gsiberger (GSI)
On May 24th, 2009 the election platform "Die Gsiberger" announced their participation in the state elections. In the election platform is a merger of several smaller parties, consisting of being beaten at the last state election VAU , the Alliance The Beaverskin , who became known as migrants List FBG , which from the Association for Probation restart incurred platform Self Empowerment and KPO .
- 8. wir-gemeinsam.at (WIR)
Helmut-Robert Bitschnau, Michael Benvenuti and Werner Frank wanted to campaign for direct democracy with their list wir-gemeinsam.at . The citizens' movement wanted the population to have a say in important issues based on the Swiss model.
Election result
With 178,711 votes cast (1,297 of which were invalid) with 261,132 eligible voters, the turnout was 68.44%, which corresponds to an increase of 7.8% compared to the previous state election in 2004.
| Official end result | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party 1 | be right | percent | +/- | Mandates | +/- |
| ÖVP | 90.108 | 50.79% | - 4.13% | 20th | - 1 |
| SPÖ | 17,779 | 10.02% | - 6.85% | 3 | - 3 |
| FPÖ | 44,563 | 25.12% | + 12.18% | 9 | + 4 |
| GREEN | 18,763 | 10.58% | + 0.41% | 4th | ± 0 |
| lapwing | 331 | 0.19% | - | 0 | - |
| BZÖ | 2.134 | 1.2% | - | 0 | - |
| GSI | 3,087 | 1.74% | - | 0 | - |
| WE | 647 | 0.36% | - | 0 | - |
| total | 177.412 | 100.00% | 36 | ||
1 Party names as abbreviations according to the official election proposal; The Lapwing list did not have an official abbreviation
Streams of voters
On behalf of the ORF , the social research institute SORA carried out a voter flow analysis after the state elections . This showed that the ÖVP owed its election victory in particular to its loyal regular voters. 89 percent of the 2004 ÖVP voters gave the People's Party their vote again in 2009. More than 7,000 voters, however, migrated from the ÖVP to the FPÖ, from which only 3,000 voters could be poached in return. The Freedom Party itself benefited particularly strongly from the re-mobilization of non-voters. While in 2004 only 28 percent of the FPÖ voters gave the party their vote again, in 2009 the party was able to win back more than 20,000 voters from this pool of non-voters. The Greens were also able to win 8,000 votes from the former non-voters, but at the same time lost 5,000 of their voters to the People's Party. The Social Democrats lost a particularly large number of votes to the ÖVP, to which they had to cede 6,000 voters. In addition, around 24% of the 2004 SPÖ voters did not vote in the 2009 state elections.
Effects
Due to Sausgruber's assurance during the election campaign that he would never again work with the FPÖ in a government after the election, he set up an ÖVP sole government after unsuccessful talks with representatives of the Greens and the SPÖ. The Sausgruber IV state government was the first sole government in Vorarlberg since the regaining of Vorarlberg sovereignty after the Second World War. The ÖVP provided all seven members of the new state government. The previous Dornbirn city councilor Andrea Kaufmann was newly accepted into the government team .
In the state parliament itself, the election result brought about a political change in the state parliament presidium. While the previous Vice President Bernadette Mennel from the ÖVP was the first woman to take the office of President of the State Parliament and Gabriele Nussbaumer remained Vice President of the State Parliament, Ernst Hagen from the FPÖ also moved up as Vice President.
The result of the state elections also had an impact on the composition of the Austrian Federal Council , in which Vorarlberg is represented with three mandataries. Due to the election result and its loss of votes, the Vorarlberg SPÖ lost its representative in the Federal Council. While the ÖVP continued to provide two of the three Vorarlberg Bundesrat members, the mandate of the SPÖ moved to the FPÖ. The new Vorarlberg federal councilors Magnus Brunner (ÖVP), Edgar Mayer (ÖVP) and Cornelia Michalke (FPÖ) were elected in the constituent session of the Vorarlberg state parliament on October 14, 2009.
Web links
- Summary of the state election 2009 on the official website of the state election authority.
- Detailed review of the 2009 state elections ( memento from September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) by the regional statistical office of the Vorarlberg state government.
- meinparlament.at - Overview of the candidates of all campaigning parties for the state election 2009
Individual evidence
- ^ ORF Vorarlberg: FPÖ goes into the election with sharp words ; Report dated August 22, 2009.
- ^ A b Maria Stopfner, Hannes Vorhofer: The scandal as an instrument of election campaigning. The liberal "Exile Jew" -sayer in the 2009 state election campaign . In: Peter Bußjäger , Ferdinand Karlhofer, Günther Pallaver (eds.): Vorarlberg's political landscape . Studienverlag , Innsbruck 2010, ISBN 978-3-7065-4649-2 , pp. 243-269.
- ^ ORF Vorarlberg: Sausgruber threatens Egger with consequences ; Report dated August 22, 2009.
- ^ ORF Vorarlberg: Sausgruber: No more coalition with FPÖ ; Report dated August 24, 2009.
- ↑ Official announcement about the electoral districts, the polling stations, the number of electoral commissions for those unable to walk, the voting time and the prohibited area on the occasion of the state elections in 2009 (basis: Sections 33 (1) and (3) and 35 (3) state election law)
- ^ ORF Vorarlberg: Further list: Kiebitz also wants to be in the state parliament ; Report of July 31, 2009.
- ^ ORF Vorarlberg: Maurer BZÖ top candidate in state elections ; Report of April 29, 2009.
- ^ ORF Vorarlberg: First party: "Gsiberger" open election campaign ; Report of July 25, 2009.
- ^ ORF Vorarlberg: list "wir-gemeinsam.at" wants to go to the state parliament ; Report of July 23, 2009.
- ^ Province of Vorarlberg: Official final result of the state election 2009 ; Website of the state election authority, accessed on September 29, 2009.
- ^ SORA Institute for Social Research and Analysis: Electoral flow analysis, Landtag election Vorarlberg 2009 ; SORA website, accessed on September 21, 2012.
- ^ Christoph Hofinger, Aleksandra Ptaszyńska: The state elections 2009 - voter flows, voter dynamics and electoral motives . In: Peter Bußjäger, Ferdinand Karlhofer, Günther Pallaver (eds.): Vorarlberg's political landscape . Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2010, ISBN 978-3-7065-4649-2 , pp. 233–241.
