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2018 Carinthian state election

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2018 Carinthian state election

← 2013 5 March 2018 2023 →

All 36 seats in the Landtag of Carinthia
19 seats needed for a majority
Turnout297,921 (68.6%)
Decrease 6.5%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Peter Kaiser Gernot Darmann Christian Benger
Party SPÖ FPÖ ÖVP
Last election 14 seats, 37.1% 6 seats, 16.8% 5 seats, 14.4%
Seats won 18 9 6
Seat change Increase 4 Increase 3 Increase 1
Popular vote 140,994 67,538 45,438
Percentage 47.9% 22.9% 15.4%
Swing Increase 10.8% Increase 6.1% Increase 1.0%

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Gerhard Köfer Rolf Holub
Party TK Greens
Last election 4 seats, 11.1% 5 seats, 12.1%
Seats won 3 0
Seat change Decrease 1 Decrease 5
Popular vote 16,667 9,188
Percentage 5.6% 3.1%
Swing Decrease 5.5% Decrease 9.0%

Results by municipality. The lighter shade indicates a plurality; the darker shade indicates a majority.

Governor before election

Peter Kaiser
SPÖ

Elected Governor

Peter Kaiser
SPÖ

The 2018 Carinthian state election was held on 5 March 2018 to elect the members of the Landtag of Carinthia.

The centre-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) was the clear winner, taking 47.9% of votes, an eleven percentage point increase from 2013. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) gained six points, and the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) gained one. This was enabled by a collapse in support for other parties: Team Carinthia, which had split from defunct Team Stronach, lost half its voteshare; The Greens tumbled from 12% to 3% and lost their representation; and the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) collapsed from 6.4% to just 0.4%.

The SPÖ fell one seat short of an absolute majority, and held exploratory talks with the three other parties in the Landtag. They ultimately formed a coalition government with the ÖVP.[1]

Background

Prior to amendments made in 2017, the Carinthian 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 June 2017, the SPÖ, ÖVP, and Greens (all members of the government) as well as Team Carinthia voted to amend the constitution to remove this requirement.[2] As such, the 2018 election was the first in post-war Carinthian history in which conventional coalition formation could take place.[3]

Electoral system

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.[4]

Contesting parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag.

Name Ideology Leader 2013 result
Votes (%) Seats
style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party of Austria/meta/color;"| SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria
Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs
Social democracy Peter Kaiser 37.1%
14 / 36
style="background:Template:Freedom Party of Austria/meta/color;"| FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria
Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs
Right-wing populism
Euroscepticism
Gernot Darmann 16.8%
6 / 36
style="background:Template:Austrian People's Party (2017)/meta/color;"| ÖVP Austrian People's Party
Österreichische Volkspartei
Christian democracy Wolfgang Waldner 14.4%
5 / 36
style="background:Template:The Greens – The Green Alternative/meta/color;"| GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative
Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative
Green politics Rolf Holub 12.1%
5 / 36
style="background:Template:Team Stronach/meta/color;"| TK Team Carinthia
Team Kärnten
Economic liberalism Gerhard Köfer 11.1%
4 / 36
style="background:Template:Alliance for the Future of Austria/meta/color;"| BZÖ Alliance for the Future of Austria
Bündnis Zukunft Österreich
National conservatism Helmut Nikel 6.4%
2 / 36

In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, four parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.[5]

Results

Popular vote
SPÖ
47.94%
FPÖ
22.96%
ÖVP
15.45%
TK
5.67%
GRÜNE
3.12%
NEOS
2.14%
Other
2.72%
Landtag seats
SPÖ
50.00%
FPÖ
25.00%
ÖVP
16.67%
TK
8.33%
Party Votes % +/− Seats +/−
bgcolor=Template:Social Democratic Party of Austria/meta/color| Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) 140,994 47.94 +10.81 18 +4
bgcolor=Template:Freedom Party of Austria/meta/color| Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 67,538 22.96 +6.11 9 +3
bgcolor=Template:Austrian People's Party (2017)/meta/color| Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) 45,438 15.45 +1.05 6 +1
bgcolor=Template:Team Stronach/meta/color| Team Carinthia (TK) 16,667 5.67 –5.51 3 –1
bgcolor=Template:The Greens – The Green Alternative/meta/color| The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) 9,188 3.12 –8.98 0 –5
bgcolor=Template:NEOS – The New Austria/meta/color| NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS) 6,307 2.14 New 0 New
Responsibility EARTH (ERDE) 5,441 1.85 New 0 New
bgcolor=Template:Alliance for the Future of Austria/meta/color| Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) 1,075 0.37 –6.03 0 –2
bgcolor=Template:Communist Party of Austria/meta/color| Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) 822 0.28 +0.28 0 ±0
FAIR (FAIR) 622 0.21 New 0 New
Invalid/blank votes 3,826
Total 297,918 100 36 0
Registered voters/turnout 434,121 68.63 –6.52
Source: Carinthian Government

Results by constituency

Constituency SPÖ FPÖ ÖVP TK Grüne NEOS Others Total
seats
Turnout
colspan="2" style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party of Austria/meta/color;"| colspan="2" style="background:Template:Freedom Party of Austria/meta/color;"| colspan="2" style="background:Template:Austrian People's Party (2017)/meta/color;"| colspan="2" style="background:Template:Team Stronach/meta/color;"| colspan="2" style="background:Template:The Greens – The Green Alternative/meta/color;"| colspan="2" style="background:Template:NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum/meta/color;"|
% S % S % S % S % S % S %
Klagenfurt 51.7 5 19.9 1 13.3 1 4.9 5.0 2.6 2.7 7 67.4
Carinthia East 46.4 4 25.8 2 17.0 1 4.8 2.2 1.9 1.9 7 69.3
Villach 51.2 4 21.6 1 12.4 5.4 2.9 2.1 4.5 5 67.9
Carinthia West 42.3 3 24.5 1 19.0 1 7.9 2.3 1.9 2.1 5 70.0
Remaining seats 2 4 3 3 0 0 12
Total 47.9 18 22.9 9 15.4 6 5.7 3 3.1 0 2.1 0 2.7 36 68.6
Source: Carinthian Government

Aftermath

After the election, the SPÖ began exploratory talks with the three other parties in the Landtag. By the beginning of April, a coalition agreement had been reached with the ÖVP. However, after ÖVP leader Christian Benger unexpectedly resigned a few days later, the SPÖ led by Kaiser demanded the coalition be renegotiated, fearing the new ÖVP leadership may renege on promises made by their predecessors.[6] On 9 April, the coalition was finalised and presented.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b "New faces in the state government". ORF. 9 April 2018.
  2. ^ "Carinthia abolishes the Proporz". Die Presse. 1 June 2017.
  3. ^ "New rules for government formation in the future". ORF. 23 December 2017.
  4. ^ "LT2018_Mandate.pdf" (PDF). Carinthian Government.
  5. ^ "Landtag election 4 March 2018". Carinthian Government.
  6. ^ "Coalition wobbles after Benger resigns". ORF. 4 April 2018.