2020 Burgenland state election

The 2020 Burgenland state election was held on 26 January 2020 to elect the members of the 22nd Landtag of Burgenland. The snap election was called in the wake of the Ibiza affair in May 2019, which caused the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) to terminate its coalition with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).[1]

2020 Burgenland state election

26 January 2020

All 36 seats in the Landtag of Burgenland
19 seats needed for a majority
Turnout187,497 (74.9%)
1.1%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Hans Peter Doskozil Thomas Steiner Johann Tschürtz
Party SPÖ ÖVP FPÖ
Last election 15 seats, 41.9% 11 seats, 29.1% 6 seats, 15.0%
Seats won 19 11 4
Seat change 4 0 2
Popular vote 92,633 56,728 18,160
Percentage 49.9% 30.6% 9.8%
Swing 8.0% 1.5% 5.2%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Regina Petrik Eduard Posch Manfred Kölly
Party Greens NEOS LBL
Last election 2 seats, 6.4% 0 seats, 2.3% 2 seats, 4.8%
Seats won 2 0 0
Seat change 0 0 2
Popular vote 12,466 3,177 2,336
Percentage 6.7% 1.7% 1.3%
Swing 0.3% 0.6% 3.6%

Results by municipality.

Governor before election

Hans Peter Doskozil
SPÖ

Elected Governor

Hans Peter Doskozil
SPÖ

The centre-left SPÖ achieved its best result since 2005, winning an absolute majority on a swing of eight percentage points. The conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) improved on its 2015 result, but did not gain any seats. The FPÖ lost a third of its votes, falling to 9.8% and four seats. The Greens stayed level, while List Burgenland (LBL) lost most of its votes and both of its seats. The net result was a shift of four seats to the SPÖ.

The SPÖ's unexpectedly strong result came after a string of election losses since 2017, including its worst-ever result in the 2019 federal election result three months earlier.[2] Commentators attributed this to the conservative positions on immigration and national security taken by Governor Hans Peter Doskozil.[3] Burgenland is a traditional stronghold of the SPÖ, who have governed the state continuously since 1964.

Due to its Landtag majority, the SPÖ did not seek a coalition partner, and entered government alone. Doskozil was sworn in as Governor for a second term on 17 February. Fellow SPÖ member Astrid Eisenkopf became Deputy Governor, the first woman to hold the position in Burgenland.[4]

Electoral system

The 36 seats of the Landtag of Burgenland are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between seven multi-member constituencies, corresponding to the seven districts of Burgenland (the statutory cities of Eisenstadt and Rust are combined with Eisenstadt-Umgebung District). Apportionment of the seats is based on the results of the most recent census.[5]

For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 4 percent state-wide electoral threshold. Seats are distributed in constituencies according to the Hare quota, with any remaining 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]

In addition to voting for a political party, voters may cast preferential votes for specific candidates of that party, but are not required to do so. These additional votes do not affect the proportional allocation based on the vote for the party or list, but can change the rank order of candidates on a party's lists at the state and constituency level. Voters may cast one preferential vote at the state level, or three at the constituency level. A voter may not cross party-lines to cast a preference vote for a candidate of another party; such preference votes are invalid.[5]

Contesting parties

Name Ideology Leader 2015 result
Votes (%) Seats
SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria
Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs
Social democracy Hans Peter Doskozil 41.9%
15 / 36
ÖVP Austrian People's Party
Österreichische Volkspartei
Christian democracy Thomas Steiner 29.1%
11 / 36
FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria
Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs
Right-wing populism
Euroscepticism
Johann Tschürtz 15.0%
6 / 36
GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative
Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative
Green politics Regina Petrik 6.4%
2 / 36
LBL List Burgenland
Liste Burgenland
Regionalism Manfred Kölly 4.8%
2 / 36
NEOS NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum
NEOS – Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum
Liberalism
Pro-Europeanism
Eduard Posch 2.3%
0 / 36

Opinion polling

Polling firm Fieldwork date Sample
size
SPÖ ÖVP FPÖ Grüne LBL NEOS Others Lead
2020 state election 26 Jan 2020 49.9 30.6 9.8 6.7 1.3 1.7 19.3
Karmasin Research January 2020 500 43.0 32.0 10.0 9.0 2.0 3.0 1.0 11.0
Hajek 29 Nov–16 Dec 2020 800 41–43 31–33 10–12 7–9 1–2 4 3–4 8–12
Hajek March–April 2017 ? 43.0 26.0 17.5 6.5 4.5 2.5 17.0
2015 state election 31 May 2015 41.9 29.1 15.0 6.4 4.8 2.3 0.4 12.8

Results

Party Votes % +/− Seats +/−
Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) 92,634 49.94 +8.02 19 +4
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) 56,726 30.58 +1.50 11 ±0
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 18,161 9.79 –5.25 4 –2
The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) 12,466 6.72 +0.29 2 ±0
NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS) 3,177 1.71 –0.62 0 ±0
List Burgenland (LBL) 2,336 0.26 –3.56 0 –2
Invalid/blank votes 1,997
Total 187,497 100 36 0
Registered voters/turnout 250,181 74.94 –1.10
Source: Burgenland Government
Popular vote
SPÖ
49.94%
ÖVP
30.58%
FPÖ
9.79%
GRÜNE
6.72%
NEOS
1.71%
LBL
1.26%
Landtag seats
SPÖ
52.78%
ÖVP
30.56%
FPÖ
11.11%
GRÜNE
5.56%

Results by constituency

Constituency SPÖ ÖVP FPÖ Grüne NEOS LBL Total
seats
Turnout
%S %S %S %S %S %S
Neusiedl48.9331.5210.26.01.60.7573.9
Eisenstadt46.5332.729.28.91.81.0575.1
Mattersburg52.9226.6111.16.81.70.8374.0
Oberpullendorf50.4231.217.35.71.34.0378.1
Oberwart53.6328.1110.55.41.90.5475.8
Güssing48.0134.519.05.72.10.7277.3
Jennersdorf48.3129.812.66.81.51.0172.0
Remaining seats43420013
Total49.91930.6119.846.721.701.303674.9
Source: Burgenland Government

Preference votes

Alongside votes for a party, voters were able to cast a preferential votes for a candidate on the party list. The ten candidates with the most preferential votes on a state level were as follows:[6]

Party Pos. Candidate Votes
SPÖ 1 Hans Peter Doskozil 57,045
ÖVP 1 Thomas Steiner 16,655
FPÖ 1 Johann Tschürtz 7,948
GRÜNE 1 Regina Petrik 2,865
SPÖ 2 Astrid Eisenkopf 1,423
ÖVP 18 Patrik Fazekas 1,403
ÖVP 14 Walter Temmel 1,298
ÖVP 8 Christian Sagartz 1,270
ÖVP 3 Carina Laschober-Luif 1,218
ÖVP 6 Rudolf Strommer 1,207

References

  1. "Austrian Social Democratic provincial governor ends cooperation with Freedom Party". Reuters. 2019-05-19. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  2. Network, EURACTIV (2020-01-27). "Sigmar Gabriel joins Deutsche Bank, frustrates social democrats". www.euractiv.com. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  3. Grüll, Philipp (2020-01-27). "VIENNA - Landslide victory for social democrats in state elections". www.euractiv.com. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  4. "Hans Peter Doskozil elected governor of Burgenland". burgenland.spoe.at (in German). 17 February 2020. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  5. "RIS - Landtag election regulation 1995 - Provincial law consolidates, version as of 03.08.2020". Burgenland Government.
  6. "Preferential votes". Burgenland Government.
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