Election to the National Council in Austria in 1956
The National Council election on May 13, 1956 was the eighth in Austrian history . The ÖVP under Chancellor Julius Raab became the party with the strongest vote and overtook the SPÖ from Adolf Schärf , which only came second despite slight gains in votes. Third place went to the FPÖ , which emerged from the VdU , with the former SS brigad leader Anton Reinthaller as the top candidate. The KPÖ , which this time ran with the Left Socialists under the list designation Communists and Left Socialists , lost votes and only barely achieved a basic mandate.
4,614,464 people were eligible to vote. The turnout was 94.31 percent (1953: 94.15 percent).
background
The National Council election in 1956 was the first after the conclusion of the Austrian State Treaty between the Federal Government and the victorious powers of World War II ( USA , USSR , France and Great Britain ) on May 15, 1955. The international role of Austria was redefined by the resolution of the Neutrality Act .
At the same time, the conclusion of the State Treaty marked a break in terms of coming to terms with the National Socialist past . Foreign Minister Leopold Figl succeeded in having Austria's war debt deleted from the treaty. With the end of the Allied withdrawal , the end of denazification was heralded. The people's courts created for the legal prosecution of National Socialist criminals were abolished in 1955 with the State Treaty. As a result, the government and Federal President Theodor Körner passed numerous amnesties for imprisoned National Socialists .
The Austrian political landscape also changed in the run-up to the National Council election. After strong disagreements within the VdU , the party was dissolved in 1955. All members of the National Council of the VdU joined the newly founded FPÖ , which stood for the first time in 1956. The first party chairman was the former SS Brigade Leader Anton Reinthaller , who was imprisoned until 1953 because of Nazi activities as a heavily incriminated person.
Bottom line
Candidates | be right | proportion of | Mandates | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1956 | ± | 1956 | ± | ||
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) | 1,999,986 | 46.0% | + 4.7% | 82 | +8 |
Socialist Party of Austria (SPÖ) | 1,873,295 | 43.0% | + 0.9% | 74 | +1 |
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) | 283,749 | 6.5% | −4.4% | 6th | −8 |
Communists and Left Socialists (KuL) | 192.438 | 4.42% | −0.86% | 3 | −1 |
Free labor movement in Austria | 1,812 | 0.04% | nk | 0 | - |
Party of reason | 284 | 0.0% | nk | 0 | - |
Ergocratic Party | 231 | 0.0% | nk | 0 | - |
Austrian Patriotic Union | 83 | 0.0% | ± 0.0% | 0 | ± 0 |
Austrian middle class party | 23 | 0.0% | nk | 0 | - |
Parliamentary representation of those unable to vote , non-voters and invalid votes in Austria |
7th | 0.0% | nk | 0 | - |
nk = not running
Results in the federal states
The results in the federal states are listed here.
Political party | B. | K | N | O | S. | St. | T | V | W. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ÖVP | 49.2 | 33.7 | 51.8 | 50.4 | 47.2 | 45.6 | 62.9 | 60.8 | 35.9 |
SPÖ | 46.0 | 48.1 | 41.2 | 40.3 | 36.1 | 44.0 | 29.6 | 26.8 | 49.7 |
FPÖ | 3.0 | 15.1 | 2.9 | 7.1 | 14.4 | 6.9 | 6.0 | 10.3 | 5.6 |
KPÖ | 1.9 | 3.1 | 4.03 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 8.5 |
FAÖ | 0.2 | ||||||||
PdV | 0.0 | ||||||||
EP | 0.02 | ||||||||
PPU | 0.01 | ||||||||
ÖMP | 0.00 | ||||||||
PVW | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
consequences
The grand coalition of ÖVP and SPÖ was continued. The ÖVP continued to provide the Federal Chancellor with Julius Raab , while Adolf Schärf remained Vice Chancellor. The federal government of Raab II began its work on June 29, 1956.