Austrian People's Party

The Austrian People's Party (German: Österreichische Volkspartei [ˈøːstɐraɪçɪʃɛ ˌfɔlksparˈtaɪ], ÖVP [ˌøːfaʊˈpeː]) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria.

Austrian People's Party Österreichische Volkspartei
Abbreviation	ÖVP
Chairperson	Karl Nehammer
Secretary General	Christian Stocker
Parliamentary leader	August Wöginger
Founded	17 April 1945; 79 years ago (1945-04-17)
Headquarters	Lichtenfelsgasse 7, 1010 First District, Vienna
Youth wing	Young People's Party
Party academy	ÖVP Political Academy
Membership (2017)	c. 600,000[1][needs update]
Ideology	Christian democracy Liberal conservatism Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre-right[2] to right-wing[3]
European affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament group	European People's Party Group
International affiliation	International Democracy Union
Colours	Turquoise[a]   Black[b]
National Council	51 / 183
Federal Council	26 / 61
Governorships	6 / 9
State cabinets	6 / 9
State diets	146 / 440
European Parliament	5 / 19
Party flag
Website
dievolkspartei.at
Politics of Austria Political parties Elections

Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currently the largest party in the National Council, with 71 of the 183 seats, and won 37.5% of votes cast in the 2019 legislative election. It holds seats in all nine state legislatures, and is part of government in seven, of which it leads six. The ÖVP is a member of the International Democracy Union and the European People's Party. It sits with the EPP group in the European Parliament; of Austria's 19 MEPs, 5 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).^[4] It became the largest party after the 2017 election, and formed a coalition government with the FPÖ.^[5] This collapsed eighteen months later, leading to the 2019 election, after which the ÖVP formed a new coalition with The Greens.^[6]

History

The ÖVP is the successor of the Christian Social Party, a staunchly conservative movement founded in 1893 by Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna and highly controversial right-wing populist. Most of the members of the party during its founding belonged to the former Fatherland Front, which was led by chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, also a member of the Christian Social Party before the Anschluss. While still sometimes honored by ÖVP members for resisting Adolf Hitler, the regime built by Dollfuss was authoritarian in nature and has been dubbed as Austrofascism. In its present form, the ÖVP was established immediately after the restoration of Austria's independence in 1945 and it has been represented in both the Federal Assembly 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.

Party membership of ÖVP (in turquoise), since 1945.

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 1999 Austrian legislative election, several months of negotiations ended in early 2000 when the ÖVP formed a coalition government with the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) led by Jörg Haider. The FPÖ had won just a few hundred more votes than the ÖVP, but was considered far too controversial to lead a government. The ÖVP's Wolfgang Schüssel became Chancellor—the first ÖVP Chancellor of Austria since 1970. This caused widespread outrage in Europe and the European Union imposed informal diplomatic sanctions on Austria, the first time that it imposed sanctions on a member state. Bilateral relations were frozen (including contacts and meetings at an inter-governmental level) and Austrian candidates would not be supported for posts in European Union international offices.^[7] Austria threatened to veto all applications by countries for European Union membership until the sanctions were lifted.^[8] A few months later, these sanctions were dropped as a result of a fact-finding mission by three former European prime ministers, the so-called "three wise men". The 2002 legislative election resulted in a landslide victory (42.27% of the vote) for the ÖVP under Schüssel. Haider's FPÖ was reduced to 10.16% of the vote. At the state level, the ÖVP has long dominated the rural states of Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. It is less popular in the city-state of Vienna and in the rural, but less strongly Catholic states of Burgenland and Carinthia. In 2004, it lost its plurality in the State of Salzburg, where they kept its result in seats (14) in 2009. In 2005, it lost its plurality in Styria for the first time.

After the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) split from the FPÖ in 2005, the BZÖ replaced the FPÖ in the government coalition which lasted until 2007. Austria for the first time had a government containing of a party that was founded during the parliamentary term. In the 2006 Austrian legislative election, the ÖVP were defeated and after much negotiations agreed to become junior partner in a grand coalition with the SPÖ, with new party chairman Wilhelm Molterer as Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor under SPÖ leader Alfred Gusenbauer, who became Chancellor. The 2008 Austrian legislative election saw the ÖVP lose 15 seats, with a further 8.35% decrease in its share of the vote. However, the ÖVP won the largest share of the vote (30.0%) in the 2009 European Parliament election with 846,709 votes, although their number of seats remained the same.

Ideology and platform

The ÖVP is described as Christian-democratic,^{[9][10][11][12]} conservative,^[13][14] and liberal-conservative.^[9][15][16] The party has also been described as a catch-all party of the centre-right, in the vein of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.^[17][18] For most of its existence, the ÖVP has explicitly defined itself as Catholic and anti-socialist, with the ideals of subsidiarity as defined by the encyclical Quadragesimo anno and 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,^[19] 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).^[4]

Organization

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

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	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
1945	Leopold Figl	1,602,227	49.80 (#1)	85 / 165	New	ÖVP–SPÖ–KPÖ majority
1949		1,846,581	44.03 (#1)	77 / 165	8	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1953		1,781,777	41.26 (#2)	74 / 165	3	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1956	Julius Raab	1,999,986	45.96 (#1)	82 / 165	8	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1959		1,928,043	44.19 (#2)	79 / 165	3	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1962	Alfons Gorbach	2,024,501	45.43 (#1)	81 / 165	2	ÖVP–SPÖ majority
1966	Josef Klaus	2,191,109	48.35 (#1)	85 / 165	4	ÖVP majority
1970		2,051,012	44.69 (#2)	78 / 165	7	Opposition
1971	Hermann Withalm	1,964,713	43.11 (#2)	80 / 183	2	Opposition
1975	Josef Taus	1,981,291	42.95 (#2)	80 / 183	0	Opposition
1979		1,981,739	41.90 (#2)	77 / 183	3	Opposition
1983	Alois Mock	2,097,808	43.22 (#2)	81 / 183	4	Opposition
1986		2,003,663	41.29 (#2)	77 / 183	4	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
1990	Josef Riegler	1,508,600	32.06 (#2)	60 / 183	17	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
1994	Erhard Busek	1,281,846	27.67 (#2)	52 / 183	8	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
1995	Wolfgang Schüssel	1,370,510	28.29 (#2)	52 / 183	0	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
1999		1,243,672	26.91 (#3)	52 / 183	0	ÖVP–FPÖ majority
2002		2,076,833	42.30 (#1)	79 / 183	27	ÖVP–FPÖ majority
2006		1,616,493	34.33 (#2)	66 / 183	13	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
2008	Wilhelm Molterer	1,269,656	25.98 (#2)	51 / 183	15	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
2013	Michael Spindelegger	1,125,876	23.99 (#2)	47 / 183	4	SPÖ–ÖVP majority
2017	Sebastian Kurz	1,341,930	31.47 (#1)	62 / 183	15	ÖVP–FPÖ majority
2019		1,789,417	37.46 (#1)	71 / 183	9	ÖVP–GRÜNE majority
2024	Karl Nehammer	1,246,676	26.27 (#2)	52 / 183	19	TBA

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	List leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
1996	Ursula Stenzel	1,124,921	29.65 (#1)	7 / 21	New	EPP
1999		859,175	30.67 (#2)	7 / 21	0
2004		817,716	32.70 (#2)	6 / 18	1	EPP-ED
2009	Ernst Strasser	858,921	29.98 (#1)	6 / 17	0	EPP
2014	Othmar Karas	761,896	26.98 (#1)	5 / 18	1
2019		1,305,954	34.55 (#1)	7 / 18	2
2024	Reinhold Lopatka	864,072	24.52 (#2)	5 / 20	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

See also

• Austria portal
• Conservatism portal
• Politics portal

• Politics of Austria

Notes

1. Since 2017
2. Until 2017

References

1. "Zwischen Nutzen und Idealen". orf.at (in German). 17 July 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
2. • Connolly, Kate; Oltermann, Philip; Henley, Jon (23 May 2016). "Austria elects Green candidate as president in narrow defeat for far right". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
   • Clarke, Hilary; Halasz, Stephanie; Vonberg, Judith. "Coalition government with far-right party takes power in Austria". CNN. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
   • "The Latest: Election tally shows Austria turning right". The Washington Times. Associated Press. 15 October 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
   • Oliphant, Roland; Csekö, Balazs (5 December 2016). "Austrian far-right defiant as Freedom Party claims 'pole position' for general election: 'Our time comes'". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
3. • "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 Democratic Party 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".
4. "Our History". Austrian People's Party. Archived from the original on 29 September 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
5. "Austria election results: Far-right set to enter government as conservatives top poll". The Independent. 16 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
6. red, ORF at (1 January 2020). "Neue Regierung: Kurz und Kogler präsentierten Einigung". news.ORF.at (in German). Retrieved 1 January 2020.
7. "The European Union's sanctions against Austria". WSWS. 22 February 2000. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
8. McNeill, Donald G. (4 July 2000). "A Threat By Austria on Sanctions". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
9. Marco Peverini (2023). Promoting Rental Housing Affordability in European Cities: Learning from the Cases of Milan and Vienna. Springer Nature Switzerland. p. 58. ISBN 9783031436925.
10. Marks, Gary; Wilson, Carole (1999). "National Parties and the Contestation of Europe". In T. Banchoff; Smith, Mitchell P. (eds.). Legitimacy and the European Union. Taylor & Francis. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-415-18188-4. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
11. Krouwel, André (2012). Party Transformations in European Democracies. SUNY Press. p. 291. ISBN 978-1-4384-4483-3. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
12. Bale, Tim (2021). Riding the populist wave: Europe's mainstream right in crisis. Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-009-00686-6. OCLC 1256593260.
13. Grande, Edgar; Dolezal, Martin; Helbling, Marc; Höglinger, Dominic (2012). Political Conflict in Western Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-107-02438-0. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
14. Givens, Terri E. (2005). Voting Radical Right in Western Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-139-44670-9. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
15. Ralph P Güntzel (2010). Understanding "Old Europe": An Introduction to the Culture, Politics, and History of France, Germany, and Austria. Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-8288-5300-3.
16. Janne Haaland Matlary (2018). Hard Power in Hard Times: Can Europe Act Strategically?. Palgrave Macmillian. p. 108. ISBN 9783319765143.
17. Mark Kesselman; Joel Krieger; Christopher S. Allen; Stephen Hellman (2008). European Politics in Transition. Cengage Learning. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-618-87078-3. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
18. Sarah Elise Wiliarty (2010). The CDU and the Politics of Gender in Germany: Bringing Women to the Party. Cambridge University Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-521-76582-4. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
19. "Make Austria Great Again — the rapid rise of Sebastian Kurz". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 17 October 2018.

Further reading

• Binder, Dieter A. (2004). "'Rescuing the Christian Occident': The People's Party in Austria". In Gehler, Michael; Kaiser, Wolfram (eds.). Christian Democracy in Europe since 1945. Routledge. pp. 121–134. ISBN 0-7146-5662-3.
• Fallend, Franz (2004). "The Rejuvenation of an 'Old Party'? Christian Democracy in Austria". In Steven Van Hecke; Gerard, Emmanuel (eds.). Christian Democratic Parties in Europe Since the End of the Cold War. Leuven University Press. pp. 79–104. ISBN 90-5867-377-4.

External links

• Official website (in German)
• Austrian People's Party Country Studies
• Austrian People's Party at the European People's Party website