Electoral party

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An electoral party , also an election campaigning party , is an association in Austria that takes part in campaigning for a general representative body in Austria ( National Council , Landtag , municipal council ) or the European Parliament and which uses a party name and draws up a party list.

The Austrian party law distinguishes between the political party as a permanently organized connection with a comprehensive influence on the state's decision-making process and the electoral party as an eligible list. Electoral parties can be formed independently of political parties; conversely, participation in the election is not a prerequisite for political party status. Despite the same names, the terms used in Austrian party law differ from those in neighboring Germany, for example: There, participation in state or federal elections is a mandatory prerequisite for party status, "electoral parties" without any connection to a political party would be referred to as a voter group there .

This is of practical importance with regard to the formal requirements for establishing the respective party form - the formation of a political party only requires the statute to be deposited with the Federal Ministry of the Interior , while electoral parties have various admission hurdles in advance of an election - and the possibility of merging different political parties Parties to a common electoral party. More than 1000 political parties are registered in Austria, and only a small number of them actually participate in the election as an electoral party. Conversely, for example, individuals can also stand for election without founding a party, typically under the name of a list with their personal names .

This also has an impact on state party support . This is measured by the election result, parties that do not stand as an electoral party therefore receive no funding in principle. This question was recently raised in 2017, for example, with the new party leader of the ÖVP , Sebastian Kurz , who had formulated the condition for Sebastian Kurz to run for elections as a list . But if that were an independent electoral party, the political party ÖVP, one of Austria's traditional large parties, would no longer receive any funding at the federal level.

Conversely, the provisions of the Political Parties Act of 2012 also apply to campaigning parties that are not political parties , with regard to the provisions on campaign expenses , accountability reports (for the sake of transparency ), donations , sponsorship , advertisements and sanctions.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Act on the Financing of Political Parties (Political Parties Act 2012) , Section 2.
  2. ↑ Parliament of the Republic of Austria: How do political parties, electoral parties, clubs and parliamentary groups differ? Publication Current Topic 2013, accessed on May 30, 2017.
  3. ↑ § 2 Law on Political Parties .
  4. ^ Philipp Aichinger: Austria, the country of (exactly) 1000 parties. In: Die Presse on November 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ Sebastian Kurz's "independence" has limits. Gerald John, in: Der Standard online, May 16, 2017.
  6. ^ The Court of Auditors: What is a campaigning party? rechnungshof.gv.at: Special Tasks> FAQ Political Parties Act> Scope 1.3 (accessed May 30, 2017).