Election to the National Council in Austria in 1979
The National Council election on May 6, 1979 was the 15th in the history of the Republic of Austria . The strongest party with 51% was the SPÖ under Chancellor Bruno Kreisky , which was able to hold its absolute majority and gain votes and mandates, which to this day means the highest percentage of votes of a party in a National Council election. With losses of votes and mandates, the ÖVP became the second strongest party under Josef Taus . The FPÖ, which ran with Alexander Götz as the top candidate, was able to gain slight votes compared to the last election.
5,186,735 Austrians were eligible to vote. The turnout was 91.18 percent (1975: 91.92).
background
Bruno Kreisky's third period of government was overshadowed by the debate about the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf an der Donau ( Lower Austria ), which contributed a lot to the emergence of the ecological movement in Austria. After the construction of the nuclear power plant, the population rejected it in a referendum on November 5, 1978 with a wafer-thin majority of 50.47%.
The referendum led to heated discussions. The ÖVP, which originally planned the planning for a nuclear power plant in Austria, also spoke out against the commissioning of the Zwentendorf NPP before the vote. The decisive factor for this was probably the strong participation of the Lower Austrian rural population, traditionally close to the ÖVP, in the protest movement against the power plant.
In the run-up to the vote, Chancellor Bruno Kreisky announced that if he voted against the commissioning, he would resign. Despite the negative outcome for Kreisky, he remained in office and also ran for the 1979 National Council election as the top candidate of the SPÖ.
Bottom line
| Candidates | be right | proportion of | Mandates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | ± | 1979 | ± | ||
| Socialist Party of Austria (SPÖ) | 2,413,226 | 51.0% | + 0.6% | 95 | +2 |
| Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) | 1,981,739 | 41.9% | −1.0% | 77 | −3 |
| Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) | 286.743 | 6.1% | + 0.7% | 11 | +1 |
| Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) | 45,280 | 0.96% | −0.23% | 0 | ± 0 |
| Christian social work group | 2.263 | 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. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPÖ | 52.9 | 56.2 | 48.4 | 50.3 | 44.9 | 51.4 | 37.7 | 33.4 | 60.6 |
| ÖVP | 43.9 | 32.6 | 47.3 | 41.8 | 43.0 | 41.4 | 55.4 | 54.9 | 33.2 |
| FPÖ | 2.7 | 10.02 | 3.6 | 7.2 | 11.4 | 6.1 | 5.7 | 10.7 | 4.7 |
| KPÖ | 0.4 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.5 |
| CSA | 0.7 |
consequences
The SPÖ was able to expand its absolute majority in these elections and appointed Bruno Kreisky as the Federal Chancellor for another four years . The Kreisky IV federal government began its work on June 5, 1979. As a result of the election results, ÖVP chairman Josef Taus resigned. Alois Mock became his successor.
