1999 Austrian legislative election

Parliamentary elections were held in Austria on 3 October 1999. Although the Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the National Council, a right-wing coalition government was formed by the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) after several months of negotiations. Although the FPÖ had finished a fraction of a point ahead of the ÖVP in the popular vote, ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel became Chancellor rather than controversial FPÖ leader Jörg Haider. Haider, who had also been elected Landeshauptmann of Carinthia, was not appointed to the cabinet and resigned as party leader.

However, foreign governments remained critical of the FPÖ's inclusion in the government and the fourteen other member countries of the European Union imposed sanctions on the country, whilst domestically the government faced protests organised by the SPÖ and Greens. However, this pressure on the government helped stabilise it and when it became clear that the FPÖ was not going to be excluded from government, sanctions were lifted.

Voter turnout was 80.4%.

Contesting parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 20th National Council.

Name			Ideology	Leader	1995 result
					Votes (%)	Seats
style="background:Template:Party color;"|	SPÖ	Social Democratic Party of Austria Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs	Social democracy	File:Bundeskanzler Viktor Klima (cropped).JPG Viktor Klima	38.1%	Template:Composition bar
style="background:Template:Party color;"|	ÖVP	Austrian People's Party Österreichische Volkspartei	Christian democracy	File:W Schuessel7.jpg Wolfgang Schüssel	28.3%	Template:Composition bar
style="background:Template:Party color;"|	FPÖ	Freedom Party of Austria Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs	Right-wing populism Euroscepticism	File:Haider, Jörg (cropped).jpg Jörg Haider	21.9%	Template:Composition bar
style="background:Template:Party color;"|	LiF	Liberal Forum Liberales Forum	Liberalism	File:Heide Schmidt Wien2008 (cropped).jpg Heide Schmidt	5.5%	Template:Composition bar
style="background:Template:Party color;"|	GRÜNE	The Greens Die Grünen	Green politics	File:Alexander Van der Bellen1.jpg Alexander Van der Bellen	4.8%	Template:Composition bar

Results

Results by state

State	SPÖ	FPÖ	ÖVP	Grüne	LiF	Others
	style="background:Template:Party color;"|	style="background:Template:Party color;"|	style="background:Template:Party color;"|	style="background:Template:Party color;"|	style="background:Template:Party color;"|
Burgenland	41.9	21.0	30.6	3.7	1.8	1.0
Carinthia	35.7	38.6	16.3	5.5	2.6	1.3
Lower Austria	33.8	22.5	32.9	6.0	2.9	1.9
Upper Austria	33.1	26.8	28.6	7.4	2.7	1.4
Salzburg	28.9	29.4	27.8	8.4	3.8	1.7
Styria	33.8	29.2	26.8	5.8	2.6	1.8
Tyrol	23.1	28.0	32.9	9.7	3.7	2.6
Vorarlberg	18.2	30.2	35.2	10.0	4.8	1.6
Vienna	37.9	24.8	17.0	10.3	7.0	3.0
Austria	33.2	26.9	26.9	7.4	3.6	2.0
Source: Austrian Interior Ministry

References

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