The 2020 Viennese state election was held on 11 October 2020 to elect the members of the Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and The Greens.
The SPÖ remained comfortably in first place with small gains. Conversely, the previously second-placed Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) suffered a catastrophic defeat, losing 80% of its votes compared to 2015 and becoming the smallest party in the legislature. The Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) moved into second place after more than doubling its vote share. The Greens recorded their best result to date, just under 15%. NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS) moved into fourth place with minor gains. Team HC Strache fell short of the 5% electoral threshold to enter the Gemeinderat and Landtag.
On 27 October, Mayor and Governor Michael Ludwig announced that the SPÖ would seek a coalition with NEOS. Negotiations were successful and the parties presented their coalition pact on 17 November. Ludwig was re-elected as Mayor by the Gemeinderat and Landtag on 24 November, and the new government was sworn in the same day.
Background The Viennese constitution mandates that cabinet positions in the city government (city councillors, ) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. The number of city councillors is voted upon by the Landtag after each election, and may legally vary between nine and fifteen. City councillors are divided into two groups – "senior" councillors, who hold a cabinet portfolio, and "non-executive" councillors who do not. Non-executive councillors may vote in cabinet meetings, but do not otherwise hold any government responsibility. In practice, parties seek to form a coalition which holds a majority in both the Landtag and city government. City councillors bound to the coalition become senior councillors, while the opposition are relegated to non-executive status.
In the 2015 state election, the SPÖ and ÖVP both suffered losses, with the former recording its worst result since 1996 and the latter its worst ever. This came to the benefit of the FPÖ, which achieved its best ever result, and NEOS, which entered the Landtag for the first time. The SPÖ won seven councillors, the FPÖ four, the Greens one, and the ÖVP one. The SPÖ renewed its coalition with the Greens.
In August 2017, Mayor and Governor Michael Häupl announced his impending retirement. He had served since 1994. He did not seek re-election as head of the Vienna SPÖ in January 2018, and was succeeded by long-serving city councillor Michael Ludwig. Häupl resigned as Mayor and Governor on 24 May 2018, and Ludwig was subsequently elected as his replacement by the Gemeinderat and Landtag. He was sworn in on 29 May.
The Ibiza affair in May 2019 led to the resignation of Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and a general decline in support for the FPÖ nationally, which was seen in the 2019 federal election and subsequent state elections in Vorarlberg, Styria, and Burgenland. Strache resigned from all political offices in November 2019, but in early 2020 announced he would join The Alliance for Austria to run in the Viennese state election. The party subsequently adopted the name Team HC Strache – Alliance for Austria.
Electoral system The 100 seats of the Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between eighteen 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 modified Hare quota, with any remaining seats allocated at the state level to create a greater degree of proportionality between a party's vote share and its share of seats.
After the 2015 election, a minor reform to the electoral system was passed, changing the formula for distribution of seats in constituencies. The new formula increases the number of votes required to win a seat in a constituency, resulting in fewer seats being distributed to parties through constituencies and more distributed on the state level. This reform was seen as beneficial to minor parties, which are unlikely to win more than a few seats in constituencies, and must rely on state-level distribution for most of their representation.
Election statistics A total of 1,133,010 people were eligible to vote in the state election, among them 597,027 women and 535,983 men. Only Austrian citizens aged 16 or older on election day were eligible. Thus, 30% of the Viennese population had no right to vote or stand as a candidate. For the district council elections held on the same day, a total of 1,362,789 voters were eligible; this number is higher than for the state election as EU citizens aged over 16 are eligible to vote in the district coulcil elections. Among this number were 712,131 women and 650,658 men.
A total of 1,494 polling stations were set up on election day. As many as 500,000 absentee/postal ballots were expected to be issued for the election. Requesting a postal ballot in person was permitted from 14 September, with the option to cast the vote early in-person right after requesting it at Vienna's various election offices. On 9 October, the City of Vienna announced that a final total of 382,214 absentee/postal ballots were issued for the election, of which 360,563 were issued to Austrian citizens for the Gemeinderat and Landtag election and an additional 21,651 to EU citizens who are eligible to vote only in the district elections. This set a new record for Vienna, topping the 266,150 voting cards issued in Vienna for the 2019 Austrian legislative election.
Contesting parties The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag. Name Ideology Leadcandidate 2015 result Votes (%) Seats Councillors SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria Social democracy Michael Ludwig 39.6% FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria Right-wing populismEuroscepticism Dominik Nepp 30.8% GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative Green politics Birgit Hebein 11.8% ÖVP Austrian People's Party Christian democracy Gernot Blümel 9.2% NEOS NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum LiberalismPro-Europeanism Christoph Wiederkehr 6.2%
In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, seven parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.
Team HC Strache – Alliance for Austria (HC) LEFT (LINKS) Social Austria of the Future (SÖZ) Beer Party of Austria (BIER) Volt Austria (Volt) – on the ballot only in Centre and Inner West We for Floridsdorf (WIFF) – on the ballot only in Floridsdorf Pro23 – List Ernst Paleta (PRO) – on the ballot only in Liesing
Lead candidates Party Candidate Offices held SPÖ Michael Ludwig Mayor and Governor of Vienna (since 2018)Chairman of SPÖ Vienna (since 2018)City Councillor for Housing, Construction, and Urban Renewal (2007–2018) FPÖ Dominik Nepp Chairman of FPÖ Vienna (since 2019)Non-executive City Councillor (since 2017) GRÜNE Birgit Hebein Deputy Mayor of Vienna (since 2019)Chairwoman of The Greens Vienna (since 2019)City Councillor for Urban Development, Transport, Climate, and Energy (since 2019) ÖVP Gernot Blümel Chairman of ÖVP Vienna (since 2015)Federal Minister of Finance (since 2020)Non-executive City Councillor (2015–2018) NEOS Christoph Wiederkehr Spokesman of NEOS Vienna (since 2018)NEOS group leader in the Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna (since 2018)Member of the Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna (since 2015) HC Heinz-Christian Strache Chairman of Team HC Strache – Alliance for Austria (since 2020)Vice-Chancellor of Austria (2017–2019)Chairman of the FPÖ (2005–2019) LINKS Anna Svec Counsellor at law SÖZ Martha Bißmann Member of the National Council (2017–2019)Presidential campaign manager for Irmgard Griss (2016) BIER Marco Pogo Chairman of the Austrian Beer Party (since 2015)Frontman of Turbobier
Opinion polling Graphical summary
Party polling Polling firm Fieldwork date Samplesize SPÖ FPÖ Grüne ÖVP NEOS HC Others Lead 2020 state election 11 Oct 2020 – 41.6 7.1 14.8 20.4 7.5 3.3 5.3 21.2 Research Affairs 3–5 Oct 2020 800 42 11 13 19 7 5 3 23 OGM 29 Sep–1 Oct 2020 803 42 10 17 19 6 4 2 23 Research Affairs 28–30 Sep 2020 404 42 10 13 20 7 6 2 22 Market 25–29 Sep 2020 787 42 9 16 21 6 4 2 21 Unique Research 16–25 Sep 2020 1,610 42 9 15 19 7 4 4 23 Research Affairs 21–24 Sep 2020 400 40 10 13 21 8 6 2 19 Demox Research (ÖVP) 6–18 Sep 2020 800 43.5 11.5 14 15.5 7 5.5 3 28 Research Affairs 14–16 Sep 2020 400 40 11 13 20 7 6 3 20 Research Affairs 8–10 Sep 2020 400 41 11 14 20 7 5 2 21 OGM 7–9 Sep 2020 804 41 10 16 21 6 4 2 20 Unique Research 28 Aug–4 Sep 2020 1,603 41 9 15 20 7 5 3 21 Research Affairs 31 Aug–2 Sep 2020 400 40 12 13 21 7 5 2 19 Research Affairs 25–27 Aug 2020 400 39 11 14 23 7 4 2 16 OGM 18–20 Aug 2020 805 39 11 16 21 7 4 2 18 Research Affairs 17–20 Aug 2020 401 39 11 14 22 8 3 3 17 Research Affairs 3–6 Aug 2020 400 39 10 14 22 8 4 3 17 OGM 13–16 Jul 2020 801 38 10 17 23 7 4 1 15 Research Affairs 6–9 Jul 2020 412 38 9 15 23 8 5 2 15 OGM 5 Jul 2020 ? 38 10 17 24 6 4 1 14 Market 15–18 Jun 2020 804 38 9 16 25 7 4 1 13 Hajek 5–10 Jun 2020 800 38 8 17 23 6 6 2 15 Research Affairs 5–10 Jun 2020 500 36 8 15 24 8 6 3 12 Unique Research 5 Jun 2020 809 38 8 15 25 7 5 2 13 Research Affairs 25–27 May 2020 400 33 9 16 25 8 6 3 8 Research Affairs 20–23 Apr 2020 400 37 9 17 23 7 5 2 14 OGM 19 Apr 2020 791 37 8 17 24 7 5 2 13 Unique Research 6 Mar 2020 ? 36 10 19 22 6 5 2 14 Research Affairs 24–28 Feb 2020 400 34 11 17 20 9 7 2 14 OGM February 2020 ? 36 10 18 21 8 5 – 15 Karmasin Research 29 Jan 2020 1,000 35 13 16 19 8 7 2 16 Research Affairs 3–9 Jan 2020 400 32 12 17 21 10 5 3 11 OGM 20 Dec 2019 902 33 17 17 20 10 – 3 13 33 14 17 20 10 4 2 13 Unique Research 2 Nov 2019 ? 36 16 18 20 8 – 2 16 Research Affairs 11–17 Jul 2019 403 34 24 12 16 8 – 6 10 Unique Research 30 May 2019 800 37 21 14 17 8 – 3 16 DEMOX January–March 2019 492 39 24 9 16 8 – 4 15 Research Affairs 17–23 Jan 2019 409 36 26 8 16 10 – 4 10 Unique Research 16 Nov 2018 ? 37 25 10 17 8 – 3 12 Research Affairs 30 Aug–5 Sep 2018 415 35 28 6 18 8 – 5 7 Research Affairs 24–30 May 2018 417 34 29 7 19 7 – 4 5 OGM 27 May 2018 ? 34 27 6 22 6 – 5 7 Research Affairs 17–19 Jan 2018 410 32 30 8 18 8 – 4 2 Unique Research 16 Jan 2018 ? 34 20 8 22 9 – 8 14 IFES 12–19 Dec 2017 800 39 22 6 19 8 – 6 17 OGM 27–30 Nov 2017 500 32 29 6 20 8 – 5 3 Research Affairs 28 Apr 2017 ? 24 40 15 10 8 – – 16 Unique Research 20 Jan 2017 ? 31 37 11 10 8 – – 6 Research Affairs 15 Jan 2017 ? 25 38 17 9 8 – – 13 Hajek 16 Oct 2016 ? 27 40 15 7 8 – 3 13 2015 state election 11 Oct 2015 – 39.6 30.8 11.8 9.2 6.2 – 2.4 8.8
Better Mayor polling