Parliamentary Elections in Austria : Historical Results

Austria’s parliament has two chambers : The Nationalrat with 183 deputies, and the Bundesrat with 61 members that are sent by the country’s 9 regional parliaments. To enter the Nationalrat, austrian political parties need to get at least 4% of the votes. The legislative period of the Nationalrat is 5 years, according to article 27 of the austrian constitution.

Nomination of the chancellor and of the government

There can be various options for a government : a government with a +50% majority of the seats, or a minority government. If one party alone does not have +50%, negotiations among the different parties are necessary – either to form a minority government, or to form a coalition of several parties that have together a parliamentary majority.

The forming of a government is not totally covered by the constitution of Austria. The austrian president (Bundespräsident) has an important role in this context. There is the first tradition (without a formal legal basis) that he gives the task to form a government to one of the party leaders. Then, there is a second tradition (without a formal legal basis), that this invitation to form a government goes to the party with the highest electoral score.

Once the the party leader charged with the preparation of a government team has finalized his work, the president nominates the chancellor and the ministers – this time with a legal basis, article 70 of the austrian constitution .

Let’s now discover the results of the last federal legislative elections (Nationalratswahlen).

The 2024 Austrian Election (Nationalratswahl 2024)

The electoral participation on 29 september 2024 was 77,4 %.

For the first time in history, the FPÖ got the number one position, with 28,8 % of the votes. The ÖVP fell on the second place, with a result of 26,3 %. The SPÖ obtained 21,1 % – its worst result since 1945.

The ÖVP got one of its worst historical results too. But there were already even lower scores : 26% in 2008 (under Wilhelm Molterer) and 24 % in 2013 (under Michael Spindelegger).

The previous ÖVP/ Green coalition – which had been presented as « The best from both worlds » – dropped from 51,4 % to 34,5%. The ÖVP lost 11,2%. The Greens (led by Werner Kogler) lost 5,7%.

The Neos grew from 8,1% to 9,1%. Apart from the FPÖ, it’s the only party that is already in the austrian Nationalrat, that augmented its score in the 2024 elections.

According to the political tradition in Austria (without a constutional basis), the FPÖ – as bestperforming party – should have gotten the formal call by the austrian president to form a government.

However, president Alexander van der Bellen did not give this call to the FPÖ, but to Karl Nehammer from the ÖVP party. Nehammer, for whatever reason, refused to discuss with the FPÖ. In january 2025 his efforts to form a coalition composed of the ÖVP, SPÖ and Neos party failed. Nehammer resigned as provisional chancellor and as head of the ÖVP party. He was replaced by Christian Stocker.

Finally, FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl got the president’s formal call to form a government. The negotiations for a FPÖ-ÖVP coalition failed too. According to Kickl, the ÖVP insisted on getting both the ministry of the interior and the ministry for finance – a demand which was unacceptable for the FPÖ.

The next turnaround was a new negotiation of the ÖVP, the SPÖ and the Neos. This time, the parties agreed on the formation of a 3 party-government.

On 3 march 2025, 6 months after the last austrian general election, the new government was inaugurated. Christian Stocker from the ÖVP is the new austrian chancellor.  Andreas Babler, the head of the SPÖ, became vice-chancellor. The leader of the Neos, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, is the new minister for foreign affairs.

The Austrian election 2019

The electoral participation was 75,2 %. The ÖVP, led by Sebastian Kurz, was the clear winner with 37,5%, before the SPÖ with 21,2% and the FPÖ with 16,2%. The Green Party got 13,9%. The Neos with Beate Meinl-Reisinger got 8,1%.

The ÖVP could raise its share at the expense of the FPÖ (led by Norbert Hofer), who was weakened after the « Ibiza Scandal » (see the details below), and who lost about 10 %.  

The SPÖ under Pamela Rendi-Wagner lost almost 6% and dropped to its worst result since 1945 (which it has repeated in the 2024 election).

The Greens had not qualified for the Nationalrat in 2017. With their new top candidate Werner Kogler they came back and got even their best historical result of 13,9%.

From 2020 to 2024 Austria was governed by an ÖVP-Green Government Coalition for which the marketing slogan « The best from both worlds » was created.

In 2021, the country had 3 different chancellors. Sebastian Kurz resigned because of suspected corruption. He was replaced by the minister for foreign affairs Alexander Schallenberg, and then by the former minister of the interior Karl Nehammer.

In 2022, the parliament approved an extreme law – Austria’s Covid vaccination mandate with substances that only had a conditional marketing autorisation. The only party that expressed a collective disapproval of this law was the FPÖ.

The Austrian election 2017

The electoral participation was 80%. With 31,5%, the ÖVP became the number 1 party of this election. The last time it got this position had been in 2002. The SPÖ under Christian Kern ranked second with 26,9%. It was followed by the FPÖ with 26%.

The Greens (led by Ulrike Lunacek) did not qualify for the parliament, as they only got 3,8%. However, one of its best known politicians, Peter Pilz, who had founded his own party, entered the parliament with a result of 4,4%.

ÖVP leader Sebastian Kurz, 31 years old back then, became the country’s youngest chancellor. Heinz-Christian Strache from the FPÖ became the vice-chancellor.

In may 2019 there was the Ibiza Affair. German media published a video that showed Strache giving controversial statements during a private dinner party in Ibiza in 2017. The dinner party was a sting operation organised by a convicted drug dealer. This person was present at the party too and tried to push Strache towards compromising statements.

After the publication of the video Strache resigned from his position. Chancellor Kurz could have continued the government coalition, but he decided to end it.

One of the events of these days was the first successful motion of censure of a government in Austria. The three parties FPÖ, SPÖ, and the list of Peter Pilz, declared their no-confidence towards the government of Mister Kurz, with the following explanation :

« Chancellor Sebastian Kurz runs a strategy that is only motivated by the hunger for power of the ÖVP party ». (Motion of censure by the SPÖ, FPÖ and List of Peter Pilz in 2019)

Subsequently an interim federal government was implemented. It consisted of public service officials, led by the interim chancellor Brigitte Bierlein.

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