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
Turnout	606,528 (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 7.6% 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

Results

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%

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

Results by constituency

Constituency	ÖVP		SPÖ		FPÖ		Grüne		KPÖ		NEOS		Total seats	Turnout
	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S
District 1	29.2	4	17.4	2	15.2	2	20.6	3	9.9	1	7.7	1	13	62.1
District 2	47.2	5	18.8	2	19.0	2	8.5	1	2.6		3.9		10	67.0
District 3	38.8	3	23.9	2	21.2	1	8.0		3.7		4.4		6	62.8
District 4	32.8	4	32.7	4	16.7	2	7.6	1	5.8		4.5		11	62.5
State seats		2		2		1		1		1		1	8
Total	36.0	18	23.0	12	17.5	8	12.1	6	6.0	2	5.4	2	48	63.5
Source: Styrian Government

References

1. "Overall results - Table 2019 final" (PDF). Styrian Government.
2. "New Styrian government is in place: ex-minister becomes regional councillor". Kurier. 16 December 2019.
3. "Schützenhöfer becomes LH, Schickhofer follows Voves". ORF. 10 June 2015.
4. ""First should provide governor"". ORF. 11 June 2015.
5. "Mandate distribution table" (PDF). Styrian Government.

External links