Austrian People's Party

Austrian People's Party Österreichische Volkspartei
State diets		146 / 440
European Parliament	7 / 19
Party flag
Website
www.dievolkspartei.at
Politics of Austria Political parties Elections

The Austrian People's Party (German: Österreichische Volkspartei [ˈøːstəraɪçɪʃə fɔlksparˈtaɪ], ÖVP [øːfaʊˈpeː]) is a Christian-democratic^[4][5][6][7] and liberal-conservative^[8] political party in Austria.

Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by

, 7 are members of the ÖVP. It is the second largest party in Europe by membership.

An unofficial successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ÖVP was founded immediately following the re-establishment of the Republic of Austria in 1945. Since then, it has been one of the two traditional major parties in Austria, alongside the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). It was the most popular party until 1970, and has traditionally governed in a grand coalition with the SPÖ. It was the senior partner in grand coalitions from 1945 to 1966 and the junior partner from 1986 to 2000 and 2007–2017. The ÖVP also briefly governed alone from 1966 to 1970. After the 1999 election, the party formed a coalition with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) until 2003, when a coalition with the FPÖ splinter Alliance for the Future of Austria was formed, which lasted until 2007.

The party underwent a change in its image after Sebastian Kurz became chairman, changing its colour from the traditional black to turquoise, and adopting the alternate name The New People's Party (German: Die neue Volkspartei).^[9] It became the largest party after the 2017 election, and formed a coalition government with the FPÖ.^[10] This collapsed eighteen months later, leading to the 2019 election, after which the ÖVP formed a new coalition with The Greens.^[11]

History

The ÖVP is the successor of the

ever since. In terms of Federal Assembly seats, the ÖVP has consistently been the strongest or second-strongest party and as such it has led or at least been a partner in most Austria's federal cabinets.

In the 1945 Austrian legislative election, the ÖVP won a landslide victory in Austria's first postwar election, winning almost half the popular vote and an absolute majority in the legislature. However, memories of the hyper-partisanship that had plagued the First Republic prompted the ÖVP to maintain the grand coalition with the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) that had governed the country since the restoration of independence in early 1945. The ÖVP remained the senior partner in a coalition with the SPÖ until 1966 and governed alone from 1966 to 1970. It reentered the government in 1986, but has never been completely out of power since the restoration of Austrian independence in 1945 due to a longstanding tradition that all major interest groups were to be consulted on policy.

After the

for the first time.

After the

with 846,709 votes, although their number of seats remained the same.

Ideology and platform

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The ÖVP is described as

decentralisation

.

For the first election after World War II, the ÖVP presented itself as the Austrian Party (German: die österreichische Partei), was anti-Marxist and regarded itself as the Party of the center (German: Partei der Mitte). The ÖVP consistently held power—either alone or in so-called black–red coalition with the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ)—until 1970, when the SPÖ formed a minority government with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). The ÖVP's economic policies during the era generally upheld a social market economy.

The party's campaign for the 2017 legislative election under the party chairman Sebastian Kurz was dominated by a rightward shift in policy which included a promised crackdown on illegal immigration and a fight against political Islam,^[18] making it more similar to the program of the FPÖ, the party that Kurz chose as his coalition partner after the ÖVP won the election. The party underwent a change in its image after Kurz became chairman, changing its colour from the traditional black to turquoise, and adopting the name The new People's Party (German: Die neue Volkspartei).^[9]

Chairpersons since 1945

The chart below shows a timeline of ÖVP chairpersons and the Chancellors of Austria. The left black bar shows all the chairpersons (Bundesparteiobleute, abbreviated as CP) of the ÖVP party and the right bar shows the corresponding make-up of the Austrian government at that time. The red (SPÖ) and black (ÖVP) colours correspond to which party led the federal government (Bundesregierung, abbreviated as Govern.). The last names of the respective Chancellors are shown, with the Roman numeral standing for the cabinets.

Election results

National Council

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
1945	1,602,227	49.8 (#1)	85 / 165	85	ÖVP–SPÖ–KPÖ majority
1949	1,846,581	44.0 (#1)	77 / 165	8	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1953	1,781,777	41.3 (#2)	74 / 165	3	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1956	1,999,986	46.0 (#1)	82 / 165	8	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1959	1,928,043	44.2 (#2)	79 / 165	3	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1962	2,024,501	45.4 (#1)	81 / 165	2	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1966	2,191,109	48.3 (#1)	85 / 165	4	ÖVP majority
1970	2,051,012	44.7 (#2)	78 / 165	7	Opposition
1971	1,964,713	43.1 (#2)	80 / 183	2	Opposition
1975	1,981,291	42.9 (#2)	80 / 183		Opposition
1979	1,981,739	41.9 (#2)	77 / 183	3	Opposition
1983	2,097,808	43.2 (#2)	81 / 183	4	Opposition
1986	2,003,663	41.3 (#2)	77 / 183	4	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
1990	1,508,600	32.1 (#2)	60 / 183	17	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
1994	1,281,846	27.7 (#2)	52 / 183	8	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
1995	1,370,510	28.3 (#2)	52 / 183		SPÖ–ÖVP majority
1999	1,243,672	26.9 (#3)	52 / 183		ÖVP–FPÖ majority
2002	2,076,833	42.3 (#1)	79 / 183	27	ÖVP–FPÖ majority
2006	1,616,493	34.3 (#2)	66 / 183	13	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
2008	1,269,656	26.0 (#2)	51 / 183	15	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
2013	1,125,876	24.0 (#2)	47 / 183	4	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
2017	1,341,930	31.5 (#1)	62 / 183	15	ÖVP–FPÖ majority
2019	1,789,417	37.5 (#1)	71 / 183	9	ÖVP–GRÜNE majority

President

Election	Candidate	First round			Second round
		Votes	%	Result	Votes	%	Result
1951	Heinrich Gleißner	1,725,451	40.1	Runner-up	2,006,322	47.9	Lost
1957	Wolfgang Denk	2,159,604	48.9	Lost
1963	Julius Raab	1,814,125	40.6	Lost
1965	Alfons Gorbach	2,324,436	49.3	Lost
1971	Kurt Waldheim	2,224,809	47.2	Lost
1974	Alois Lugger	2,238,470	48.3	Lost
1980	No candidate
1986	Kurt Waldheim	2,343,463	49.6	Won	2,464,787	53.9	Won
1992	Thomas Klestil	1,728,234	37.2	Runner-up	2,528,006	56.9	Won
1998	Thomas Klestil	2,644,034	63.4	Won
2004	Benita Ferrero-Waldner	1,969,326	47.6	Lost
2010	No candidate
2016	Andreas Khol	475,767	11.1	5th place
2022	No candidate

European Parliament

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
1996	1,124,921	29.7 (#1)	7 / 21	7
1999	859,175	30.7 (#2)	7 / 21
2004	817,716	32.7 (#2)	6 / 18	1
2009	858,921	30.0 (#1)	6 / 17
2014	761,896	27.0 (#1)	5 / 18	1
2019	1,305,954	34.6 (#1)	7 / 18	2

State Parliaments

State	Year	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
Burgenland	2020	56,728	30.6 (#2)	11 / 36	0	Opposition
Carinthia	2023	51,637	17.0 (#3)	7 / 36	1	SPÖ–ÖVP
Lower Austria	2023	359,194	39.9 (#1)	23 / 56	6	ÖVP–FPÖ
Salzburg	2023	81,752	30.4 (#1)	12 / 36	3	ÖVP–FPÖ
Styria	2019	217,036	36.0 (#1)	18 / 48	4	ÖVP–SPÖ
Tyrol	2022	119,167	34.7 (#1)	14 / 36	3	ÖVP–SPÖ
Upper Austria	2021	303,835	37.6 (#1)	22 / 56	1	ÖVP–FPÖ
Vienna	2020	148,238	20.4 (#2)	22 / 100	15	Opposition
Vorarlberg	2019	71,911	43.5 (#1)	17 / 36	1	ÖVP–Grüne

Symbols

• 
  Logo used in the 1980s
• 
  Logo before 2017
• 
  Logo with flag before 2017
• 
  Party logo 2017 - 2022
• 
  Turquoise variant of the Party-Logo 2017 - 2022
• 
  Party Logo since 2022

Notes

References

^

• "Austria's new government is a first—a Conservative-Green coalition". The Economist. 7 January 2020. But on January 7th Mr Kogler, who led the party to a string of electoral successes last year, and three of his comrades were sworn in to government as junior partners to the right-wing Austrian People's Party (ÖVP).
• "Who's fired?". Financial Times. 30 September 2019. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. His rightwing Austrian People's Party posted a projected 37 per cent in Sunday's general election, as both the Social Democrats and the far-right Freedom Party — Mr Kurz's allies in the government that collapsed in May — fell back.
• "Austrian MPs vote to ban headscarves in primary schools". euronews. 16 May 2019. The law was tabled by the coalition government, made up of PM Sebastian Kurz' right-wing Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
• "What's at stake in Austria's legislative elections?". TRT World. 24 September 2019. That crisis—which saw the collapse of the coalition between the rightwing Austrian People's Party (OVP) and the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO)—stemmed from a controversial incident now known as the "Ibiza scandal".

^

ISBN 978-0-415-18188-4

. Retrieved 26 August 2012.

^

ISBN 978-1-4384-4483-3

. Retrieved 14 February 2013.

^

ISBN 978-1-59140-790-4

. Retrieved 19 July 2013.

OCLC 1256593260

.

^

ISBN 978-3-8288-5300-3

.

^ ^{a b} "Our History". Austrian People's Party. Archived from the original on 29 September 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2020.

^ "Austria election results: Far-right set to enter government as conservatives top poll". The Independent. 16 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2018.

^ red, ORF at (1 January 2020). "Neue Regierung: Kurz und Kogler präsentierten Einigung". news.ORF.at (in German). Retrieved 1 January 2020.

^ "The European Union's sanctions against Austria". WSWS. 22 February 2000. Retrieved 4 September 2012.

^ McNeill, Donald G. (4 July 2000). "A Threat By Austria on Sanctions". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2012.

ISBN 978-1-107-02438-0

. Retrieved 19 July 2013.

ISBN 978-1-139-44670-9

. Retrieved 19 July 2013.

ISBN 978-0-618-87078-3

. Retrieved 17 August 2012.

ISBN 978-0-521-76582-4

. Retrieved 17 August 2012.

^ "Make Austria Great Again — the rapid rise of Sebastian Kurz". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 17 October 2018.