2017 Austrian legislative election
Legislative elections were held in Austria on 15 October 2017 to elect the 26th National Council, the lower house of Austria's bicameral parliament. The snap election was called when the coalition government between the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) was dissolved in May by the latter party's new leader Sebastian Kurz.
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All 183 seats in the National Council 92 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 80.0% (5.1pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results of the election, showing seats won by state and nationwide. States are shaded according to the first-place party. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The ÖVP took a strong lead in opinion polls after Kurz's confirmation as leader, and emerged as the largest party in the election, with 31.5% of votes cast and 62 of the 183 seats in the National Council. The SPÖ finished second with 52 seats, just ahead of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which received 51 seats. NEOS was fourth with 10 seats. The Greens failed to meet the 4% electoral threshold and were ejected from parliament for the first time since entering in 1986, losing all of their 24 seats. The Peter Pilz List, which had split from The Greens at the start of the campaign, won 4.4% and 8 seats.
Sebastian Kurz claimed victory on election night. Incumbent Chancellor and SPÖ leader Christian Kern announced that he was willing to consider a coalition with the FPÖ, though he said that the likelihood of such a coalition was very small. Kurz was formally invited to form a government on 20 October, and began coalition talks with FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache four days later. Negotiation teams on both sides were established to work on a coalition agreement. The talks proved to be successful and led to the formation of the first Kurz government on December 18.