The 2023 Lower Austrian state election was held on 29 January 2023 to elect the members of the Landtag of Lower Austria.
The ruling conservative ÃÂVP lost almost 10 percentage points and received slightly less than 40% of the vote, making it its worst election result in Lower Austria's history. As a result, the party also lost its absolute majority in the state parliament (23 of 56 seats, -9), and its absolute majority in the state government, losing two of its six seats.
The center-left SPÃÂ also had its worst election result in history, losing more than 3 percentage points and receiving 20.7% of the vote. They lost one seat in the Landtag but kept their two state councilors. For the first time since World War II, the SPÃÂ ended up in third place in a Lower Austrian state election.
The far-right populist FPÃÂ achieved their best election result yet, winning more than 24% of the vote, an increase of almost 10 percentage points. Their seat share in the Landtag increased by 6, to 14 seats. They added two seats to their current one in the state government. For the first time ever, they overtook SPÃÂ and landed in second place in a state election.
The environmentalist Greens improved their election results slightly, winning about 8% of the vote, up by just over 1 percentage point. They gained an additional seat in the Landtag and regained their parliamentary fraction status by winning a fourth seat again.
The liberal NEOS also improved their previous election result by more than 1 percentage point and received 6.7%, their best result yet and kept their three seats in the Landtag.
Both the Greens and NEOS failed to receive a seat in the nine-member state government.
Voter turnout was 71.6%, an increase of 5 percentage points from the previous election, reversing a long-time trend of falling turnout.
The Lower Austrian constitution mandates that cabinet positions in the state government (state councillors, ) be allocated amongst parties proportionally to the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. As such, the government is a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualify for at least one state councillor. After the 2018 election, ÃÂVP had six councillors, the SPÃÂ two, and the FPÃÂ one. A party has to win at least 10 to 12 percent of the vote to receive a seat in the state government.
The 56 seats of the Landtag of Lower Austria are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between twenty multi-member constituencies. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a four percent statewide 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.
The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag.
Parties not currently represented in the state parliament of Lower Austria had until 23 December 2022 to submit the necessary signatures and paperwork to gain ballot access, either in individual constituencies or statewide.
In addition to the 5 parties represented in the state parliament, all of which are on the ballot statewide, another 3 parties gained ballot access:
After the Austrian ÃÂVP-led federal government vetoed Romania and Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen Area, it was accused of having done so out of fear of losing seats in the Lower Austrian state election, with the FPÃÂ rising in opinion polls.
After the election, the SPÃÂ replaced their party leader Franz Schnabl with Sven Hergovich - the current Lower Austrian leader of the Austrian Labor Market Service for the unemployed (AMS).
Due to the Proporz system in Lower Austria, the ÃÂVP now gets 4 of the 9 state government councilors, the FPÃÂ 3 and the SPÃÂ 2.
Official talks between the ÃÂVP and the other parties to create a possible coalition or working agreement in the newly elected Landtag started right after the election.
A widely perceived racist slur by FPàstate councilor Gottfried Waldhäusl at a TV debate with high school students made a formal working agreement or coalition between the ÃÂVP and FPàunlikely - increasing instead the likelihood of a formal ÃÂVP-SPàworking agreement or coalition in the Landtag. The widely perceived racist slur by FPàstate councilor Gottfried Waldhäusl was followed by a propaganda attack on the school of the students who participated in the TV debate with Waldhäusl, with unknown perpetrators dropping xenophobic leaflets and posters on the school grounds. Waldhäusl's comments and the xenophobic attack on the school prompted all other parties to sharply condemn Waldhäusl and the FPÃÂ. Meanwhile, the FPàeither defended Waldhäusl or remained silent. Erwin Angerer, FPàlead candidate for the upcoming 2023 Carinthian state election on 5 March, said that he wouldn't have phrased Waldhäusl's comments the way he did, distancing himself somewhat from his party colleague. The FPÃÂ's general secretary Michael Schnedlitz, as well as party leader Herbert Kickl defended Waldhäusl's comments, while the FPÃÂ-leaders of Upper Austria, Tyrol and Salzburg were critical, saying "well-integrated high school students with a migrant background are the wrong target for failed immigration policy". Salzburg, like Carinthia, will vote later this year in the 2023 Salzburg state election on 23 April.
On 14 February 2023, the ÃÂVP started in-depth coalition talks with the SPÃÂ.
On 9 March 2023, coalition talks between ÃÂVP and SPÃÂ were abruptly ended by the ÃÂVP after "unbridgeable differences", as well as "demands from the SPÃÂ that couldn't be agreed on". The new SPÃÂ-leader Sven Hergovich said "he would rather chop off his hand, than give in to the ÃÂVP". The SPÃÂ's demands included the introduction of all-day kindergarten care in Lower Austria, a statewide "job guarantee" for long-term unemployed, more heating benefits for poor people, better financial assistance for family members who perform long-term care for their ill/old family members and more investments into rural areas. The ÃÂVP said these demands would hurt the competitiveness of Lower Austria. The ÃÂVP will start in-depth talks with the FPÃÂ now about a possible coalition.
On 17 March, the new ÃÂVP-FPÃÂ coalition in the Lower Austrian state parliament (Landtag) was officially presented.
On 23 March, the new ÃÂVP-FPÃÂ coalition, the new ÃÂVP-FPÃÂ-SPÃÂ government and Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner were officially elected by the new Landtag. The FPÃÂ cast invalid votes in the election of Mikl-Leitner as Governor, despite entering a coalition with her ÃÂVP, honoring their campaign pledge not to re-elect her. SPÃÂ, Greens and NEOS voted against her. She received 24 of the 41 valid votes, out of 56 total members in the Landtag, the lowest number of votes for any Governor of Lower Austria. It was also the first time a Lower Austrian Governor was elected by a minority of the total members in the Landtag.