Austrian legislative election, 2006

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1 October 2006

2008 →

All 183 seats in the National Council
92 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

4,793,780 (78.49%)

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Alfred Gusenbauer	Wolfgang Schüssel	Alexander Van der Bellen
Party	SPÖ	ÖVP	Greens
Leader since	2000	1995	1997
Leader's seat	3C Mostviertel	9E Vienna South-West	9F Vienna North-West
Last election	69 seats, 36.51%	79 seats, 42.30%	17 seats, 9.47%
Seats won	68	66	21
Seat change	1	13	4
Popular vote	1,663,986	1,616,493	520,130
Percentage	35.34%	34.33%	11.05%
Swing	1.17%	7.97%	1.58%

	Fourth party	Fifth party

Leader	Heinz-Christian Strache	Peter Westenthaler
Party	FPÖ	BZÖ
Leader since	2005	2006
Leader's seat	9D Vienna South	9D Vienna South
Last election	18 seats, 10.01%	did not contest
Seats won	21	7
Seat change	3	7
Popular vote	519,598	193,539
Percentage	11.04%	4.11%
Swing	1.03%	4.11%

Chancellor before election

Wolfgang Schüssel
ÖVP

Elected Chancellor

Alfred Gusenbauer
SPÖ

Wolfgang Schüssel
ÖVP

Alfred Gusenbauer
SPÖ

The 2006 general election for the National Council in Austria was held on 1 October 2006.

Following the Austrian legislative election, 1999, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) had formed a coalition government with the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), and later the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ). As a result of the 2006 election, the ÖVP-BZÖ coalition lost their majority in parliament. After three months of negotiations, it was announced on January 8 that the SPÖ and ÖVP would form a grand coalition, with SPÖ leader Alfred Gusenbauer becoming the next Chancellor.

The Austrian People's Party contested the election with Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel as its leader. It was the first federal election in Austria since 1970 the party entered as strongest party. Slogans used by the party in the campaign were "Secure. Austria" (Sicher. Österreich), "Austria. Here, we are well." (Österreich. Hier geht's uns gut.) and "Austria. Stays better." (Österreich. Bleibt besser.) They also attacked the Social Democratic Party, attesting them a lack of economic competence, repeatedly bringing up the so-called "BAWAG-Affair". The ÖVP cited a rising number of academics and shorter study periods, according to them because of the introduction of tuition fees, as some of their successes. They also capitalized on their women’s policies, including being the first Austrian cabinet with half the ministers being women and appointing a woman as president of the Supreme Court for the first time.

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Wikipedia