| Election Name: | 2009 Carinthian state election |
| Country: | Carinthia |
| Flag Year: | state |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Previous Election: | 2004 Carinthian state election |
| Previous Year: | 2004 |
| Next Election: | 2013 Carinthian state election |
| Next Year: | 2013 |
| Election Date: | 1 March 2009 |
| Seats For Election: | All 36 seats in the Landtag of Carinthia |
| Majority Seats: | 19 |
| Turnout: | 362,680 (82.8%) 3.1% |
| Leader1: | Gerhard Dörfler |
| Party1: | Freedom Party in Carinthia |
| Last Election1: | 16 seats, 42.4% |
| Seats1: | 17 |
| Seat Change1: | 1 |
| Popular Vote1: | 159,926 |
| Percentage1: | 44.9% |
| Swing1: | 2.5% |
| Leader2: | Reinhart Rohr |
| Party2: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
| Last Election2: | 14 seats, 38.4% |
| Seats2: | 11 |
| Seat Change2: | 3 |
| Popular Vote2: | 102,385 |
| Percentage2: | 28.7% |
| Swing2: | 9.7% |
| Leader4: | Josef Martinz |
| Party4: | Austrian People's Party |
| Last Election4: | 4 seats, 11.6% |
| Seats4: | 6 |
| Seat Change4: | 2 |
| Popular Vote4: | 59,955 |
| Percentage4: | 16.8% |
| Swing4: | 5.2% |
| Leader5: | Rolf Holub |
| Party5: | The Greens – The Green Alternative |
| Last Election5: | 2 seats, 6.7% |
| Seats5: | 2 |
| Seat Change5: | 0 |
| Popular Vote5: | 18,336 |
| Percentage5: | 5.1% |
| Swing5: | 1.6% |
| Governor | |
| Before Election: | Gerhard Dörfler |
| Before Party: | Freedom Party in Carinthia |
| After Election: | Gerhard Dörfler |
| After Party: | Freedom Party in Carinthia |
The 2009 Carinthian state election was held on 1 March 2009 to elect the members of the Landtag of Carinthia.
The election took place five months after the death of Governor Jörg Haider, long-time leader of the Freedom Party in Carinthia (FPK). He was succeeded by Gerhard Dörfler. The FPK had split from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) when Haider formed the Alliance for the Future of Austria in 2005, and without its veteran leader, the party's future was uncertain. Nonetheless, Dörfler managed to retain the FPK's position and even increase its voteshare to an all-time high of almost 45%. The opposition Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) suffered major losses, but remained in second place. The Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) made gains, and The Greens narrowly retained their seats. The FPÖ's new state branch won just 3.8% and failed to enter the Landtag at all.[1]
The FPK managed to secure a majority in the state government for the first time, but was still two seats short in the Landtag. The party subsequently formed a coalition with the ÖVP.
Prior to amendments made in 2017, the Carinthian constitution mandated that cabinet positions in the state government (state councillors, German: Landesräten) 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 state councillor.[2]
In 2005, then-Governor and former federal leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) Jörg Haider split from the party due to internal disputes, and founded the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ). The Freedom Party in Carinthia, then the FPÖ's state branch and led by Haider, changed its allegiance and became the Carinthian branch of the BZÖ. The large majority of its leadership and structure followed, with only a small minority defecting to the FPÖ's new Carinthian branch. Shortly after the 2008 federal election, Haider was killed in a car accident. He was succeeded by Gerhard Dörfler, who became the new Governor of Carinthia and leader of the FPK. Dörfler led the party to the 2009 state election under the name "Freedom Party in Carinthia – BZÖ List Jörg Haider". The FPÖ launched a new Carinthian state branch, hoping to challenge the FPK's dominance.
The 36 seats of the Landtag of Carinthia are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between four 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.[3]
The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag.
| Name | Ideology | Leader | 2004 result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | Councillors | |||||
| FPK | Freedom Party in Carinthia – BZÖ List Jörg Haider | Right-wing populism Euroscepticism | Gerhard Dörfler | 42.4% | |||
| SPÖ | Social Democratic Party of Austria | Social democracy | Reinhart Rohr | 38.4% | |||
| ÖVP | Austrian People's Party | Christian democracy | Josef Martinz | 11.6% | |||
| GRÜNE | The Greens – The Green Alternative | Green politics | Rolf Holub | 6.7% | |||
In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, six parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.
| align=center colspan=9 | |||||||||
| Party | Votes | % | +/− | Seats | +/− | +/− | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor= | Freedom Party in Carinthia – BZÖ List Jörg Haider (FPK) | 159,926 | 44.89 | +2.46 | 17 | +1 | 4 | +1 | |
| bgcolor= | Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) | 102,385 | 28.74 | –9.69 | 11 | –3 | 2 | –1 | |
| bgcolor= | Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) | 59,955 | 16.83 | +5.19 | 6 | +2 | 1 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) | 18,336 | 5.15 | –1.56 | 2 | ±0 | 0 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) | 13,383 | 3.76 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | |
| bgcolor= | Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) | 1,893 | 0.53 | –0.06 | 0 | ±0 | 0 | ±0 | |
| List Strong (STARK) | 208 | 0.06 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Gaddafi Party of Austria (GPÖ) | 188 | 0.05 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 6,406 | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| Total | 362,680 | 100 | – | 36 | 0 | 7 | 0 | ||
| align=left colspan=2 | Registered voters/turnout | 443,499 | 81.78 | –3.15 | – | – | – | – | |
| align=left colspan=9 | Source: Carinthian Government | ||||||||
| Constituency | FPK | SPÖ | ÖVP | Grüne | FPÖ | Others | Total seats | Turnout | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | |||||
| Klagenfurt | 41.8 | 3 | 27.1 | 2 | 16.9 | 1 | 8.6 | 4.4 | 1.1 | 6 | 78.0 | ||||||||||
| Carinthia East | 47.0 | 4 | 28.5 | 2 | 16.7 | 1 | 4.0 | 3.4 | 0.5 | 7 | 84.3 | ||||||||||
| Villach | 42.7 | 3 | 34.4 | 2 | 13.6 | 1 | 4.9 | 3.8 | 0.6 | 6 | 79.7 | ||||||||||
| Carinthia West | 47.4 | 4 | 25.8 | 2 | 19.7 | 1 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 0.4 | 7 | 85.0 | ||||||||||
| Remaining seats | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 10 | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | 44.9 | 17 | 28.7 | 11 | 16.8 | 6 | 5.2 | 2 | 3.8 | 0.6 | 36 | 81.8 | |||||||||
| Source: Carinthian Government | |||||||||||||||||||||