National Council election in Austria 1999
The National Council election on October 3, 1999 was the 21st in the history of the Republic of Austria. Both the SPÖ under Chancellor Viktor Klima and the ÖVP with its top candidate Wolfgang Schüssel lost votes. While the Social Democrats were able to maintain their place as the strongest party despite heavy losses, the ÖVP only came third in terms of votes for the first time in its history.
The second strongest force was the FPÖ from Jörg Haider , which sent Thomas Prinzhorn into the race as the top candidate and won votes and mandates. Fourth place went to the Greens with Alexander Van der Bellen . The Liberal Forum with Heide Schmidt failed because of the four percent hurdle and was no longer represented in the newly elected National Council.
Bottom line
Eligible voters | 5,838,373 |
votes cast | 4,695,225 |
voter turnout | 80.42% |
invalid votes | 72,871 |
valid votes | 4,622,354 |
Candidates | be right | proportion of | Mandates | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1999 | +/- | 1999 | +/- | ||
Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) | 1,532,448 | 33.15% | -4.91% p | 65 | –6 |
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) | 1,244,087 | 26.91% | +5.02% p | 52 | +11 |
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) | 1,243,672 | 26.91% | -1.38% p | 52 | ± 0 |
The Greens - The Green Alternative (GREEN) | 342,260 | 7.40% | + 2.59% p | 14th | +5 |
Liberal Forum (LIF) | 168,612 | 3.65% | -1.86% p | - | -10 |
The Independents - List Lugner (DU) | 46,943 | 1.02% | nk | - | ± 0 |
Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) | 22,016 | 0.48% | + 0.19% p | - | ± 0 |
No to NATO and EU - Neutral Austria Citizens' Initiative (NO) | 19,286 | 0.42% | -0.68% p | - | ± 0 |
Christian voter community (CWG) | 3,030 | 0.07% | -0.03% p | - | ± 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 | 41.9 | 35.7 | 33.8 | 33.1 | 29.0 | 33.8 | 23.1 | 18.2 | 37.9 |
FPÖ | 21.0 | 38.6 | 22.5 | 26.8 | 29.4 | 29.2 | 28.0 | 30.2 | 24.8 |
ÖVP | 30.6 | 16.3 | 32.9 | 28.6 | 27.8 | 26.8 | 32.9 | 35.2 | 17.0 |
GREEN | 3.7 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 7.4 | 8.4 | 5.8 | 9.7 | 10.04 | 10.3 |
LIF | 1.8 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 2.7 | 3.8 | 2.6 | 3.7 | 4.8 | 7.0 |
YOU | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 1.7 |
KPÖ | 0.2 | 0.33 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.30 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.9 |
NO | 0.27 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.35 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |
CWG | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
consequences
Parties | Seats |
---|---|
Absolute majority (from 92 seats) | |
SPÖ, ÖVP | 117 |
FPÖ, ÖVP | 104 |
Total seats | 183 |
The coalition negotiations between the SPÖ and the ÖVP to extend the government cooperation that had existed since 1986 failed. The ÖVP claimed the Ministry of Finance , which the SPÖ rejected. As a result, the ÖVP started negotiations with the FPÖ. On February 4, 2000, the Federal Government Schüssel I , the first black and blue government, was formed. Wolfgang Schüssel was the first ÖVP Federal Chancellor since 1970 and the first Federal Chancellor of the Second Republic who was not provided by the strongest or second strongest party in terms of the number of votes. Previously - before the elections - Schüssel had announced that he would go into opposition if the ÖVP fell to third place in favor of the voters.
The cabinet of the black-blue coalition was only reluctantly sworn in by Federal President Thomas Klestil . In addition, in the run-up to the formation of the government, he did not accept the FPÖ politicians Thomas Prinzhorn and Hilmar Kabas as federal ministers.
The participation of the FPÖ in government triggered strong protests in parts of the Austrian population and at the diplomatic level. In terms of foreign policy, the new federal government was subject to bilateral sanctions . The 14 EU states restricted contact with the Austrian federal government to the bare minimum; eight months later, the sanctions were lifted on the advice of a team of three experts sent by the European Court of Human Rights . Israel withdrew its ambassador from Vienna.
In Austria itself there was a polarization of the electorate: on the one hand, the polls of the governing coalition rose and many Austrians showed solidarity with the government (e.g. in view of foreign policy interference); on the other hand, there was a protest movement against the ÖVP-FPÖ government that lasted almost two years . A few weeks after the government was formed, several hundred thousand people demonstrated against them in Vienna.
After the formation of the government, Viktor Klima (* 1947) resigned as SPÖ party chairman . Alfred Gusenbauer (* 1960) was his successor.
See also
- List of members of the Austrian National Council (XXI legislative period)
- National Council election regulations
Individual evidence
- ^ Website of the Federal Ministry of the Interior on the 1999 National Council election
- ↑ Results by federal state
- ^ Josef Klaus was Federal Chancellor from 1964 until the 1970 election
- ^ Spiegel.de February 5, 2000: New government triggers storm of protest
- ↑ Der Spiegel 6/2000 (February 7, 2000): Barrage on the Alpine bunker
- ↑ spiegel.de September 13, 2000: Austria: Israel continues sanctions