2009 European Parliament election in Austria

2009 European Parliament election in Austria

4 June 2009
17 seats to the European Parliament
Turnout	45.97% ( 3.54 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ernst Strasser Hannes Swoboda Hans-Peter Martin Party ÖVP SPÖ Hans-Peter Martin's List Alliance EPP PES Last election 32.70%, 6 seats 33.33%, 7 seats 13.98%, 2 seats Seats won 6 4 (5 post-Lisbon) 3 Seat change 0 3 ( 2) 1 Popular vote 858,921 680,041 506,092 Percentage 29.98% 23.74% 17.67% Swing 2.72pp 9.59pp 3.69pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Andreas Mölzer Ulrike Lunacek Ewald Stadler Party FPÖ Greens BZÖ Alliance European Greens Last election 6.31%, 1 seat 12.89%, 2 seats – Seats won 2 2 0 (1) Seat change 1 0 New Popular vote 364,207 284,505 131,261 Percentage 12.71% 9.93% 4.58% Swing 6.40pp 2.96pp New

An election was held in 2009 to elect the delegation from Austria to the European Parliament. Austria will have 17 seats in the European Parliament, instead of the 18 that the country had before the re-allocation of seats.

Through the Lisbon Treaty, the number of seats was graded to 19, so the SPÖ and BZÖ parties got additional seats, which are currently Observer MEPs.

Contesting parties

SPÖ

The SPÖ announced that their frontrunner will be current MEP Hannes Swoboda.

ÖVP

The ÖVP surprisingly selected former Interior Minister Ernst Strasser to lead their party. 2004 frontrunner and MEP Othmar Karas, initially the favourite for the first place on the ÖVP party list, was listed in second place. Nonetheless, a large number of famous ÖVP members, including all living former ÖVP chairmen, launched a supporting committee for Karas.

FPÖ

Andreas Mölzer was selected to lead the FPÖ's lists again, and Heinz-Christian Strache claimed that up to 30% were possible; Mölzer stated that he wanted to reach 17.5% again, as in the 2008 elections.

Die Grünen

At the Greens' party congress on 17–18 January 2009, long-time MEP Johannes Voggenhuber was not selected for the first place on the party list, with Ulrike Lunacek being elected instead; Voggenhuber had announced he would not stand in any other place on the list and thus will withdraw from politics after the election. However, in the days after the decision, it was not ruled out that Voggenhuber might run on his own; he later emphatically stated he would not do that. It was announced in late January that he might stand in the 16th place on the list, making it possible for him to be ranked first in preferences with more than 7% of the Greens' votes in the election. The party leadership rejected this possibility in a meeting on 30 January 2009, angering many of the Greens' supporters. Cyriak Schwaighofer, the Greens' leader in Salzburg, then stated he would do what he could to get Voggenhuber on the list as a regional MEP candidate for Salzburg, but the Greens' leadership again rejected this idea.

BZÖ

The BZÖ picked Ewald Stadler to head their list; they did not want to run together with the Libertas Party, but stated that they were interested in cooperation after the election.

Hans-Peter Martin

MEP Hans-Peter Martin, who got 14% of the vote in the 2004 elections as an Independent, announced on 27 April that he would run again, stating he was sure he would defend his strong third-place showing in the 2004 elections.

Young Liberals

Liberal Forum MEP Karin Resetarits gave the Young Liberals (a sub-organisation of the LIF, both its youth party and its student organisation) the possibility to contest the election. It later emerged that the LIF would in fact have liked to contest the election, but that it had counted on Resetarits' signature in order to contest the election; as she had given it to the Young Liberals, they could stand in the election while the LIF could not.

KPÖ

The Communist Party of Austria announced on 7 March that it will participate in the elections under the list name "Communist Party of Austria – European Left".

Opinion polls

Source	Date	SPÖ	ÖVP	MARTIN	GRÜNE	FPÖ	BZÖ	Others	Undecided
Gallup/Österreich	2009-06-02	27–29%	27–29%	12–14%	8–10%	14–16%	4–6%	–	–
Market/Standard	2009-06-01	28%	27%	15%	8%	17%	4%	1%	–
Karmasin/Profil	2009-05-28	27%	28%	13%	10%	15%	5%	2%	–
OGM/News	2009-05-27	26%	30%	14%	8%	16%	5%	1%	–
IFES/Heute	2009-05-25	27%	29%	10%	11%	16%	5%	2%	–
OGM/ORF	2009-05-24	29%	30%	11%	9%	14%	5%	2%	–
Market/Standard	2009-05-22	25%	27%	17%	10%	14%	3%	4%	–
Market/ORF-Eco Archived 23 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine	2009-05-08	29%	27%	13%	8%	16%	5%	2%	–
Gallup/Österreich	2009-05-08	31%	30%	8%	9%	17%	5%	–	–
OGM/News	2009-05-06	32%	29%	9%	10%	15%	5%	–	–
Karmasin/Profil	2009-05-02	30%	30%	9%	9%	17%	5%	–	–
OGM/News	2009-04-15	30%	32%	6%	9%	17%	5%	1%	–
Gallup/Österreich	2009-04-04	31–33%	30–32%	6–8%	8–10%	15–17%	3–5%	–	–
Peter Hayek/ATV Archived 30 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine	2009-04-01	31%	33%	10%	9%	10%	4%	3%	–
Manova/Presse	2009-04-01	33%	30%	3%	13%	13%	6%	2%	–
Gallup/Österreich	2009-03-27	30–32%	29–31%	7–9%	9-11%	15–17%	4–6%	–	–
Market/Standard	2009-03-25	30%	29%	8%	9%	15%	6%	3%	–
Gallup/Österreich	2009-03-13	30–32%	29–31%	7–9%	9-11%	15–17%	4–6%	–	–
Fessel-Gfk/Presse	2009-03-05	28%	25%	4%	8%	9%	–	–	26%

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
				Elected	+/–	Post-Lisbon	+/–
	Austrian People's Party	858,921	29.98	6	0	6	0
	Social Democratic Party of Austria	680,041	23.74	4	–3	5	+1
	Hans-Peter Martin's List	506,092	17.67	3	+1	3	0
	Freedom Party of Austria	364,207	12.71	2	+1	2	0
	The Greens – The Green Alternative	284,505	9.93	2	0	2	0
	Alliance for the Future of Austria	131,261	4.58	0	New	1	+1
	Young Liberals	20,668	0.72	0	New	0	0
	Communist Party of Austria	18,926	0.66	0	0	0	0
Total		2,864,621	100.00	17	–1	19	+2
Valid votes		2,864,621	97.93
Invalid/blank votes		60,511	2.07
Total votes		2,925,132	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,362,761	45.97
Source: Ministry of Interior