2019 Styrian state election

The 2019 Styrian state election was held on 24 November 2019 to elect the members of the Landtag of Styria.

2019 Styrian state election

24 November 2019

All 48 seats in the Landtag of Styria
25 seats needed for a majority
Turnout606,528 (63.5%)
4.4%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Hermann Schützenhöfer Michael Schickhofer Mario Kunasek
Party ÖVP SPÖ FPÖ
Last election 14 seats, 28.5% 15 seats, 29.3% 14 seats, 26.8%
Seats won 18 12 8
Seat change 4 3 6
Popular vote 217,036 138,572 105,294
Percentage 36.0% 23.0% 17.5%
Swing 7.5% 6.3% 9.3%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Sandra Krautwaschl Claudia Klimt-Weithaler Niko Swatek
Party Greens KPÖ NEOS
Last election 3 seats, 6.7% 2 seats, 4.2% 0 seats, 2.6%
Seats won 6 2 2
Seat change 3 0 2
Popular vote 72,749 36,062 32,346
Percentage 12.1% 6.0% 5.4%
Swing 5.4% 1.8% 2.7%

Results by municipality.

Governor before election

Hermann Schützenhöfer
ÖVP

Elected Governor

Hermann Schützenhöfer
ÖVP

The conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) was the clear winner of the election, winning 36.0% on a swing of 7.6 percentage points. This came to the detriment of the former largest party, the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), which lost six points and fell to second place. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) fell by nine points. The Greens made a strong showing, winning 12% and doubling their representation to six seats. The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) achieved their best result since re-entering the Landtag in 2005 with 6.0%. NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS) doubled its voteshare from the 2015 election, winning 5.4%, and entered the Landtag with two seats.[1]

The outgoing government, a coalition of the SPÖ and ÖVP, was unusual in that it was headed by a member of the smaller party – Hermann Schützenhöfer of the ÖVP. With his party's success in the election, he was re-elected Governor by the Landtag at the head of a renewed ÖVP–SPÖ coalition.[2]

Background

In the 2015 election, the SPÖ–ÖVP government suffered major losses (–9.0 and –8.7 points respectively) to the FPÖ (+16.1 points), with all three parties finishing within a 2.5 percentage point margin of one another. Afterwards, in line with a promise to step down if the SPÖ fell below 30% of votes, Governor Franz Voves announced his resignation. With the SPÖ and ÖVP planning to continue their coalition, the larger SPÖ was expected to retain the governorship. However, after several days of negotiations, the government announced that Voves would be succeeded by ÖVP leader Hermann Schützenhöfer.[3] This was received poorly by opposition parties and the federal SPÖ alike, who criticised it as a breach of political convention. The Styrian SPÖ claimed it had been done to prevent the ÖVP from defecting and forming a coalition with the FPÖ.[4]

In May 2019, the Ibiza affair led to the collapse of the federal government between the ÖVP and FPÖ. The September 2019 federal election took place two months ahead of the Styrian election and saw substantial losses for the FPÖ and SPÖ, and gains for the ÖVP and Greens.

Electoral system

The 48 seats of the Landtag of Styria are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. 40 of the seats are distributed between four multi-member constituencies. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must win at least one seat in a constituency directly. Seats are distributed in constituencies according to the Hare quota, with eight leveling seats allocated using the D'Hondt method at the state level, to ensure overall proportionality between a party's vote share and its share of seats.[5]

Contesting parties

Name Ideology Leader 2015 result
Votes (%) Seats
SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria
Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs
Social democracy Michael Schickhofer 29.3%
15 / 48
ÖVP Austrian People's Party
Österreichische Volkspartei
Christian democracy Hermann Schützenhöfer 28.5%
14 / 48
FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria
Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs
Right-wing populism
Euroscepticism
Mario Kunasek 26.8%
14 / 48
GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative
Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative
Green politics Sandra Krautwaschl 6.7%
3 / 48
KPÖ Communist Party of Austria
Kommunistische Partei Österreichs
Communism Claudia Klimt-Weithaler 4.2%
2 / 48
NEOS NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum
NEOS – Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum
Liberalism
Pro-Europeanism
Niko Swatek 2.6%
0 / 48

Opinion polling

Polling firm Fieldwork date Sample
size
SPÖ ÖVP FPÖ Grüne KPÖ NEOS Others Lead
2019 state election 24 November 2019 23.0 36.0 17.5 12.1 6.0 5.4 13.0
Research Affairs 8–14 Nov 2019 400 23 35 20 13 5 4 12
Karmasin 8–13 Nov 2019 700 22 35 20 13 6 4 13
Market 8–13 Nov 2019 774 25 32 18 13 5 7 7
Research Affairs 26–31 Oct 2019 400 21 36 21 13 4 5 15
IMAS 16–29 Oct 2019 800 25 33 21 12 4 5 8
Unbekannt 29 Oct 2019 ? 25 34 18 13 5 5 9
OGM 16–22 Oct 2019 746 21 35 20 12 5 5 14
GMK 13 Sep 2019 ? 27 33 22 8 5 5 6
OGM 3–6 Sep 2019 512 23 31 26 7 5 4 5
OGM 4 Aug 2019 ? 20 33 27 10 5 4 1 6
Market 28–31 Jan 2019 793 27 30 24 9 4 4 1 3
Brand Support 13 Jan 2019 ? 24 34 25 7 3 5 2 9
Krone 18 Mar 2018 510 26 34 26 6 3 5 8
OGM 21 May 2016 ? 25 28 31 7 5 4 3
2015 state election 31 May 2015 29.3 28.5 26.8 6.7 4.2 2.6 2.0 0.8

Results

Party Votes % +/− Seats +/−
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) 217,036 36.05 +7.60 18 +4
Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) 138,572 23.02 –6.27 12 –3
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 105,294 17.49 –9.27 8 –6
The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) 72,749 12.08 +5.40 6 +3
Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) 36,062 5.99 +1.77 2 ±0
NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS) 32,346 5.37 +2.73 2 +2
Invalid/blank votes 4,469
Total 606,528 100 48 0
Registered voters/turnout 955,795 63.46 –4.44
Source: Styrian Government
Popular vote
ÖVP
36.05%
SPÖ
23.02%
FPÖ
17.49%
GRÜNE
12.08%
KPÖ
5.99%
NEOS
5.37%
Landtag seats
ÖVP
37.50%
SPÖ
25.00%
FPÖ
16.67%
GRÜNE
12.50%
KPÖ
4.17%
NEOS
4.17%

Results by constituency

Constituency ÖVP SPÖ FPÖ Grüne KPÖ NEOS Total
seats
Turnout
%S %S %S %S %S %S
District 129.2417.4215.2220.639.917.711362.1
District 247.2518.8219.028.512.63.91067.0
District 338.8323.9221.218.03.74.4662.8
District 432.8432.7416.727.615.84.51162.5
State seats2211118
Total36.01823.01217.5812.166.025.424863.5
Source: Styrian Government

References

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