| Election Name: | 2015 Styrian state election |
| Country: | Styria |
| Flag Year: | state |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Previous Election: | 2010 Styrian state election |
| Previous Year: | 2010 |
| Next Election: | 2019 Styrian state election |
| Next Year: | 2019 |
| Election Date: | 31 May 2015 |
| Seats For Election: | All 48 seats in the Landtag of Styria |
| Majority Seats: | 25 |
| Turnout: | 655,051 (67.9%) 1.6% |
| Leader1: | Franz Voves |
| Party1: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
| Last Election1: | 23 seats, 38.3% |
| Seats1: | 15 |
| Seat Change1: | 8 |
| Popular Vote1: | 189,762 |
| Percentage1: | 29.3% |
| Swing1: | 9.0% |
| Leader2: | Hermann Schützenhöfer |
| Party2: | Austrian People's Party |
| Last Election2: | 22 seats, 37.2% |
| Popular Vote2: | 184,301 |
| Seats2: | 14 |
| Seat Change2: | 8 |
| Percentage2: | 28.5% |
| Swing2: | 8.7% |
| Leader3: | Mario Kunasek |
| Party3: | Freedom Party of Austria |
| Last Election3: | 6 seats, 10.7% |
| Seats3: | 14 |
| Seat Change3: | 8 |
| Popular Vote3: | 173,332 |
| Percentage3: | 26.8% |
| Swing3: | 16.1% |
| Leader4: | Lambert Schönleitner |
| Party4: | The Greens – The Green Alternative |
| Last Election4: | 3 seats, 5.6% |
| Seats4: | 3 |
| Seat Change4: | 0 |
| Popular Vote4: | 43,272 |
| Percentage4: | 6.7% |
| Swing4: | 1.1% |
| Leader5: | Claudia Klimt-Weithaler |
| Party5: | Communist Party of Austria |
| Last Election5: | 2 seats, 4.4% |
| Seats5: | 2 |
| Seat Change5: | 0 |
| Popular Vote5: | 27,339 |
| Percentage5: | 4.2% |
| Swing5: | 0.2% |
| Map Size: | 350px |
| Governor | |
| Before Election: | Franz Voves |
| Before Party: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
| After Election: | Hermann Schützenhöfer |
| After Party: | Austrian People's Party |
The 2015 Styrian state election was held on 31 May 2015 to elect the members of the Landtag of Styria.
The election saw major losses for the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), the two major parties, matched by huge gains for the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). The SPÖ finished first on 29.3% and 15 seats, just ahead of the ÖVP's 28.5% and 14 seats. The FPÖ placed a close third with 26.8%, and tied the ÖVP in seats.[1]
Governor Franz Voves resigned after the election. The SPÖ and ÖVP renewed their coalition government, but during negotiations, it was unexpectedly announced that ÖVP leader Hermann Schützenhöfer would become Governor, despite his party being the smaller of the two.[2] The SPÖ claimed it was a necessary concession to prevent an ÖVP–FPÖ coalition; nonetheless, the announcement caused significant controversy. Schützenhöfer was sworn in on 15 June.[3]
After the 2010 election, the SPÖ won a narrow victory over the ÖVP, and the two parties formed a coalition government.
Prior to amendments made in 2011, the Styrian constitution mandated that cabinet positions in the state government 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 cabinet position. In November 2011, the Landtag voted to amend the constitution to remove this requirement. As such, the 2015 election was the first in post-war Styrian history in which conventional coalition formation could take place.[4]
The 48 seats of the Landtag of Styria are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. 38 of the seats are distributed between four multi-member constituencies. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must win at least one seat in a constituency directly. Seats are distributed in constituencies according to the Hare quota, with ten leveling 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.[5]
| Name | Ideology | Leader | 2010 result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | ||||||
| SPÖ | Social Democratic Party of Austria | Social democracy | Franz Voves | 38.3% | |||
| ÖVP | Austrian People's Party | Christian democracy | Hermann Schützenhöfer | 37.2% | |||
| FPÖ | Freedom Party of Austria | Right-wing populism Euroscepticism | Mario Kunasek | 10.7% | |||
| GRÜNE | The Greens – The Green Alternative | Green politics | Lambert Schönleitner | 5.6% | |||
| KPÖ | Communist Party of Austria | Communism | Claudia Klimt-Weithaler | 4.4% | |||
In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, three parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot:
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | SPÖ | ÖVP | FPÖ | Grüne | KPÖ | TS | NEOS | Others | Lead | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 state election | data-sort-value="2015-05-31" | 31 May 2015 | – | 29.3 | 28.5 | 26.8 | 6.7 | 4.2 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 0.2 | 0.8 | |
| OGM | data-sort-value="2015-05-24" | May 2015 | 503 | 31–32 | 28–29 | 21–22 | 6–7 | 5–6 | 1–2 | 3–4 | 1–2 | 2–4 | |
| Gallup | data-sort-value="2015-05-15" | 11–13 May 2015 | 400 | 31 | 29 | 21 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | |
| Market | data-sort-value="2015-05-15" | 4–7 May 2015 | 398 | 33 | 31 | 17 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | |
| OGM | data-sort-value="2015-05-10" | May 2015 | ? | 30 | 28 | 24 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| M+R | data-sort-value="2015-05-03" | March 2015 | 800 | 34 | 30 | 19.5 | 6.5 | 4.5 | – | 3 | 2 | 4 | |
| Gallup | data-sort-value="2015-04-20" | April 2015 | 300 | 31 | 29 | 20 | 8 | 4 | – | 5 | 2 | 2 | |
| Gallup | data-sort-value="2015-03-15" | March 2015 | ? | 32 | 29 | 20 | 8 | 4 | – | 5 | 2 | 3 | |
| meinungsraum.at | data-sort-value="2015-01-08" | January 2015 | ? | 30 | 28 | 21 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 2 | |
| 2010 state election | data-sort-value="2010-09-26" | 26 September 2010 | – | 38.3 | 37.2 | 10.7 | 5.6 | 4.4 | – | – | 3.9 | 1.1 |
| align=center colspan=7 | |||||||
| Party | Votes | % | +/− | Seats | +/− | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor= | Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) | 189,762 | 29.29 | –8.97 | 15 | –8 | |
| bgcolor= | Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) | 184,301 | 28.45 | –8.74 | 14 | –8 | |
| bgcolor= | Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) | 173,332 | 26.76 | +16.10 | 14 | +8 | |
| bgcolor= | The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) | 43,272 | 6.68 | +1.13 | 3 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) | 27,339 | 4.22 | –0.19 | 2 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS) | 17,078 | 2.64 | New | 0 | New | |
| bgcolor= | Team Stronach (FRANK) | 11,292 | 1.74 | New | 0 | New | |
| Pirate Party of Austria (PIRAT) | 1,406 | 0.22 | +0.22 | 0 | ±0 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 7,269 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Total | 655,051 | 100 | – | 48 | –8 | ||
| align=left colspan=2 | Registered voters/turnout | 964,665 | 67.90 | –1.64 | – | – | |
| align=left colspan=8 | Source: Styrian Government | ||||||
| Constituency | SPÖ | ÖVP | FPÖ | Grüne | KPÖ | 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 | % | |||||
| District 1 | 28.3 | 4 | 24.8 | 3 | 23.5 | 3 | 11.2 | 1 | 6.4 | 1 | 5.7 | 12 | 64.4 | ||||||||
| District 2 | 22.0 | 2 | 38.1 | 4 | 27.9 | 3 | 5.2 | 1.9 | 4.9 | 9 | 72.3 | ||||||||||
| District 3 | 28.3 | 2 | 28.4 | 2 | 31.8 | 2 | 4.4 | 2.9 | 4.1 | 6 | 68.3 | ||||||||||
| District 4 | 36.9 | 5 | 24.3 | 3 | 26.4 | 3 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 3.4 | 11 | 68.2 | ||||||||||
| State seats | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | |||||||||||||||
| Total | 29.3 | 15 | 28.5 | 14 | 26.8 | 14 | 6.7 | 3 | 4.2 | 2 | 4.6 | 48 | 67.9 | ||||||||
| Source: Styrian Government | |||||||||||||||||||||
Prior to the election, Governor Franz Voves stated he would resign if the SPÖ fell below 30% of vote share. As the party fell short of this target, albeit by less than one percentage points, Voves announced his resignation. He was replaced as party leader by Michael Schickhöfer. Formal coalition talks between the SPÖ and ÖVP proceeded. As the SPÖ was the larger party, it was naturally expected that they would retain the governorship. However, after several days of negotiations, the government announced that Voves would be succeeded by ÖVP leader Hermann Schützenhöfer.[2] This was received poorly by opposition parties and the federal SPÖ alike, who criticised it as a breach of political convention. The Styrian SPÖ claimed it had been done to prevent the ÖVP from defecting and forming a coalition with the FPÖ.[3] The government took office on 16 June.