The 2005 Viennese state election was held on 23 October 2005 to elect the members of the Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna.
The governing Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) led by Mayor and Governor Michael Häupl won a landslide victory, increasing its absolute majority by an additional three seats and winning just under half of the vote. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) suffered substantial losses, falling from second to fourth place. The Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) returned to second place for the first time since 1991. The Greens achieved their best-ever result, winning 14.6% of votes and becoming the third largest party in the Gemeinderat and Landtag. To date this is the last election any party won a majority in the Landtag.
Background The Viennese constitution mandates that cabinet positions in the city government (city councillors, ) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. The number of city councillors is voted upon by the Landtag after each election, and may legally vary between nine and fifteen. City councillors are divided into two groups – "senior" councillors, who hold a cabinet portfolio, and "non-executive" councillors who do not. Non-executive councillors may vote in cabinet meetings, but do not otherwise hold any government responsibility. In practice, parties seek to form a coalition which holds a majority in both the Landtag and city government. City councillors bound to the coalition become senior councillors, while the opposition are relegated to non-executive status.
In the 2001 state election, the SPÖ regained the absolute majority it had lost in 1996. The FPÖ suffered substantial losses, but remained the second largest party with 20% of the vote. The Greens also made gains, with the Liberal Forum lost its seats. The SPÖ won nine city councillors and formed government alone.
Electoral system The 100 seats of the Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between eighteen 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 5 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.
Contesting parties The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag. Name Ideology Leader 2001 result Votes (%) Seats Councillors SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria Social democracy Michael Häupl 46.9% FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria Right-wing populismEuroscepticism Heinz-Christian Strache 20.2% ÖVP Austrian People's Party Christian democracy Johannes Hahn 16.4% GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative Green politics Maria Vassilakou 12.4%
In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, four parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.
Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) Vienna Forum (WIF) – on the ballot only in Donaustadt Socialist Left Party (SLP) – on the ballot only in Centre
Results Party Votes % +/− Seats +/− +/− Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) 333,611 49.09 +2.18 55 +3 9 ±0 Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) 127,531 18.77 +2.38 18 +2 2 ±0 The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) 99,432 14.63 +2.18 14 +3 2 +1 Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 100,780 14.83 –5.33 13 –8 1 –2 Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) 9,969 1.47 +0.83 0 ±0 0 ±0 Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) 7,824 1.15 New 0 New 0 New Vienna Forum (WIF) 294 0.04 New 0 New 0 New Socialist Left Party (SLP) 124 0.02 +0.01 0 ±0 0 ±0 Invalid/blank votes 14,950 – – – – – – Total 694,515 100 – 100 0 14 –1 Registered voters/turnout 1,142,126 60.81 –5.77 – – – –Source: Viennese Government
Results by constituency Constituency SPÖ ÖVP Grüne FPÖ Others Totalseats Turnout % % % % % Centre 37.9 3 25.0 2 23.6 2 10.6 2.9 7 59.6 Inner West 34.0 2 24.8 1 29.3 2 9.0 3.0 5 61.2 Leopoldstadt 49.9 2 15.1 17.8 1 14.1 3.0 3 59.0 Landstraße 43.3 2 21.9 1 19.3 1 12.6 3.0 4 59.9 Favoriten 57.7 6 12.1 1 8.1 19.6 2 2.5 9 59.5 Simmering 60.8 3 10.6 7.4 18.8 1 2.4 4 60.0 Meidling 52.3 3 16.0 12.5 16.5 2.7 3 59.2 Hietzing 36.6 1 34.7 1 15.6 11.0 2.1 2 66.5 Penzing 45.8 2 21.6 1 15.2 14.8 2.6 3 61.9 Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus 51.0 2 13.8 16.4 15.9 2.9 2 55.5 Ottakring 51.5 3 15.8 14.4 15.8 2.5 3 59.9 Hernals 42.5 1 22.4 17.7 14.9 2.5 1 60.2 Währing 32.4 1 33.0 1 22.0 10.3 2.2 2 63.1 Döbling 38.1 1 33.5 1 14.8 11.7 2.0 2 63.7 Brigittenau 56.7 2 12.1 11.7 16.8 2.8 2 58.1 Floridsdorf 57.8 6 13.1 1 9.1 17.0 1 3.1 8 61.4 Donaustadt 57.8 6 13.1 1 9.9 1 16.4 1 2.9 9 61.8 Liesing 51.4 3 19.5 1 12.1 14.5 1 2.5 5 64.9 Remaining seats 6 6 7 7 26 Total 49.1 55 18.8 18 14.6 14 14.8 13 2.7 100 60.8 Source: Viennese Government
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