The 2015 Styrian state election was held on 31 May 2015 to elect the members of the Landtag of Styria.
The election saw major losses for the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÃÂ) and Austrian People's Party (ÃÂVP), the two major parties, matched by huge gains for the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÃÂ). The SPÃÂ finished first on 29.3% and 15 seats, just ahead of the ÃÂVP's 28.5% and 14 seats. The FPÃÂ placed a close third with 26.8%, and tied the ÃÂVP in seats.
Governor Franz Voves resigned after the election. The SPàand ÃÂVP renewed their coalition government, but during negotiations, it was unexpectedly announced that ÃÂVP leader Hermann Schützenhöfer would become Governor, despite his party being the smaller of the two. The SPàclaimed it was a necessary concession to prevent an ÃÂVPâÂÂFPàcoalition; nonetheless, the announcement caused significant controversy. Schützenhöfer was sworn in on 15 June.
After the 2010 election, the SPÃÂ won a narrow victory over the ÃÂVP, and the two parties formed a coalition government.
Prior to amendments made in 2011, the Styrian constitution mandated that cabinet positions in the state government be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. As such, the government was a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualified for at least one cabinet position. In November 2011, the Landtag voted to amend the constitution to remove this requirement. As such, the 2015 election was the first in post-war Styrian history in which conventional coalition formation could take place.
The 48 seats of the Landtag of Styria are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. 38 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 ten 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.
In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, three parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot:
Prior to the election, Governor Franz Voves stated he would resign if the SPàfell below 30% of vote share. As the party fell short of this target, albeit by less than one percentage points, Voves announced his resignation. He was replaced as party leader by Michael Schickhöfer. Formal coalition talks between the SPàand ÃÂVP proceeded. As the SPàwas the larger party, it was naturally expected that they would retain the governorship. However, after several days of negotiations, the government announced that Voves would be succeeded by ÃÂVP leader Hermann Schützenhöfer. This was received poorly by opposition parties and the federal SPàalike, who criticised it as a breach of political convention. The Styrian SPàclaimed it had been done to prevent the ÃÂVP from defecting and forming a coalition with the FPÃÂ. The government took office on 16 June.