2018 Carinthian state election

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.

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. As such, the 2018 election was the first in post-war Carinthian history in which conventional coalition formation could take place.

In the 2013 election, the Freedom Party in Carinthia suffered the largest defeat of any party in Austrian history, falling from 45% to just 17%. Their collapse led to a highly fractious result, with five parties winning at least one state councillor. However, the SPÖ emerged as a clear victor with 37% of the vote. The FPK, having previously been the dominant party in the state, won only one state councillor. Shortly after the election, they voted to give up their independence and merge into the federal Freedom Party. The SPÖ subsequently formed a governing agreement with the ÖVP and Greens.

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.

Contesting parties The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag. Name Ideology Leader 2013 result Votes (%) Seats SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria Social democracy Peter Kaiser 37.1% FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria Right-wing populismEuroscepticism Gernot Darmann 16.8% ÖVP Austrian People's Party Christian democracy Wolfgang Waldner 14.4% GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative Green politics Rolf Holub 12.1% TK Team Carinthia Populism Gerhard Köfer 11.1% BZÖ Alliance for the Future of Austria National conservatism Helmut Nikel 6.4%

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

NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS) Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) – on the ballot only in Klagenfurt, Carinthia East, and Villach Responsibility Earth (ERDE) FAIR (FAIR)

Opinion polling Polling firm Fieldwork date Samplesize SPÖ FPÖ ÖVP Grüne TK BZÖ NEOS Others Lead 2018 state election 5 March 2018 – 47.9 22.9 15.4 3.1 5.7 0.4 2.1 2.7 25.0 OGM 14–20 Feb 2018 786 44 24 18 2–3 5 – 4–5 1–2 20 M+R Autumn 2017 500 42–44 26–28 16–18 3–4 5–6 – 2–3 2 14–18 TrendCom February 2017 1,100 39 28 13 12 4 0 3 – 11 IFAP 12 Aug 2014 ? 43 16 17 13 4 2 4 – 26 Humaninstitut 26 Mar 2014 ? 38 16 12 14 10 3 7 – 22 IMAS 28 Feb 2014 ? 36 18 10 15 8 1.5 10 1.5 18 2013 state election 3 March 2013 – 37.1 16.8 14.4 12.1 11.2 6.4 – 1.9 20.3

Results Party Votes % +/− Seats +/− Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) 140,994 47.94 +10.81 18 +4 Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 67,538 22.96 +6.11 9 +3 Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) 45,438 15.45 +1.05 6 +1 Team Carinthia (TK) 16,667 5.67 –5.51 3 –1 The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) 9,188 3.12 –8.98 0 –5 NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS) 6,307 2.14 New 0 New Responsibility EARTH (ERDE) 5,441 1.85 New 0 New Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) 1,075 0.37 –6.03 0 –2 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 Totalseats Turnout % % % % % % % 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. On 9 April, the coalition was finalised and presented.

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