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

← 2015 26 January 2020 2025 →
All 36 seats in the Landtag of Burgenland 19 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	187,497 (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   Leader Regina Petrik Manfred Kölly Party Greens LBL Last election 2 seats, 6.4% 2 seats, 4.8% Seats won 2 0 Seat change 0 2 Popular vote 12,466 2,336 Percentage 6.7% 1.3% Swing 0.3% 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
Neusiedl	48.9	3	31.5	2	10.2		6.0		1.6		0.7		5	73.9
Eisenstadt	46.5	3	32.7	2	9.2		8.9		1.8		1.0		5	75.1
Mattersburg	52.9	2	26.6	1	11.1		6.8		1.7		0.8		3	74.0
Oberpullendorf	50.4	2	31.2	1	7.3		5.7		1.3		4.0		3	78.1
Oberwart	53.6	3	28.1	1	10.5		5.4		1.9		0.5		4	75.8
Güssing	48.0	1	34.5	1	9.0		5.7		2.1		0.7		2	77.3
Jennersdorf	48.3	1	29.8		12.6		6.8		1.5		1.0		1	72.0
Remaining seats		4		3		4		2		0		0	13
Total	49.9	19	30.6	11	9.8	4	6.7	2	1.7	0	1.3	0	36	74.9
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.