Country: | Austria |
Flag Year: | state |
Type: | parliamentary |
Previous Election: | 1971 Austrian legislative election |
Previous Year: | 1971 |
Next Election: | 1979 Austrian legislative election |
Next Year: | 1979 |
Seats For Election: | All 183 seats in the National Council of Austria |
Majority Seats: | 92 |
Election Date: | 5 October 1975 |
Image1: | Kreisky-Koechler-Vienna-1980 Crop.jpg |
Leader1: | Bruno Kreisky |
Party1: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
Last Election1: | 50.04%, 93 seats |
Seats1: | 93 |
Popular Vote1: | 2,326,201 |
Percentage1: | 50.42% |
Swing1: | 0.38pp |
Party2: | Austrian People's Party |
Last Election2: | 43.11%, 80 seats |
Seats2: | 80 |
Popular Vote2: | 1,981,291 |
Percentage2: | 42.95% |
Swing2: | 0.16pp |
Image3: | 3x4.svg |
Leader3: | Friedrich Peter |
Party3: | Freedom Party of Austria |
Last Election3: | 6.29%, 10 seats |
Seats3: | 10 |
Popular Vote3: | 249,444 |
Percentage3: | 5.41% |
Swing3: | 0.88pp |
Chancellor | |
Before Election: | Bruno Kreisky |
Before Party: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
After Election: | Bruno Kreisky |
After Party: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
Parliamentary elections were held in Austria on 5 October 1975.[1] The result was a victory for the Socialist Party (SPÖ), which won 93 of the 183 seats. Voter turnout was 93%.[2]
The SPÖ was able to keep their absolute majority in this election as well and continued to appoint Bruno Kreisky as Chancellor. The Kreisky III Federal Government took office on 28 October 1975.
Following the elections, Simon Wiesenthal, at that time the head of the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna, published a report on the Nazi past of the long-serving Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) leader Friedrich Peter. This report revealed that Peter had served as an Obersturmbannführer in an SS unit associated with mass murders. Despite having been a victim of the Nazi regime, Kreisky defended Peter and accused Wiesenthal of employing "Mafia methods" and implied that he had collaborated with the Gestapo.
This public dispute is today referred to as the Kreisky–Peter–Wiesenthal affair. In 1978 Peter did not run again for the position of FPÖ federal party chairman. His successor was the Mayor of Graz .