The 2025 Viennese state election was held to elect the members of the Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna on 27 April 2025.
Background In the 2020 state election, the SPÖ under mayor Michael Ludwig was able to improve its 2015 result after the downward trend of the last elections and again became the strongest party with 41.6%. The Greens under Birgit Hebein also improved and achieved their best result so far in Vienna with 14.8%. The NEOS under Christoph Wiederkehr also recorded small gains and reached 7.5%. After suffering its worst result ever in 2015, the ÖVP was now able to more than double its share of the vote and received 20.4%; their lead candidate was former Federal Finance Minister Gernot Blümel. The FPÖ under Dominik Nepp lost more than two thirds of its vote share and reached 7.1%, its worst result since the state and municipal elections in 1983. The newly founded Team HC Strache – Alliance for Austria received 3.3% of the vote, which was below the electoral threshold, and thus failed to get any seats, as did the small parties LINKS with 2.1%, the Beer Party with 1.8%, and SÖZ with 1.2%. Other small parties played no significant role.
In 2020, a total of 1,133,010 people were eligible to vote, of whom 597,027 were women and 535,983 men. Voter turnout fell sharply to 65.27%, but this was still a higher turnout than in the 2005 state election, which had the lowest voter turnout to date with 60.81%.
The share of absentee votes that ended up being counted reached a new high of 28.34% among all eligible voters in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, meaning that more than 43 percent of all votes cast were by absentee ballot.
After exploratory talks between the mayoral party SPÖ with the ÖVP, the Greens and NEOS, the SPÖ surprisingly decided to start coalition negotiations with the NEOS instead of the previous coalition partner, the Greens. A coalition with the ÖVP was rejected due to little agreement on topics. A coalition with the FPÖ was rejected outright by the SPÖ.
On 16 November 2020, the first contents of the new coalition agreement were presented. On 24 November 2020, Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) was re-elected as mayor with 60 out of 100 votes – 54 of them from the new coalition – and the new city government was sworn in by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen.
A 5% threshold applies to state and municipal elections in Vienna. In the past, the NEOS have campaigned for lowering it to 3%.
Statistics A total of 1,109,936 Austrian citizens who are at least 16 years old on election day will be eligible to vote, a slight decrease from the 1,133,010 in the previous state election in 2020. The number of voting-eligible Austrian citizens is declining for years, despite Vienna growing by more than 110,000 people between 2020 and 2025, in large parts because of non-citizen immigrants. The voting-eligible citizen population is declining because of more deaths than births among citizens and a negative migration balance to other Austrian states and countries, which is not compensated by enough naturalisations of non-citizens. 36% of Viennese older than 16 are not eligible to vote in the election due to lack of Austrian citizenship.
A total of 265,328 absentee ballots were issued for the election, or 23.9% of eligible voters. The number is much smaller than absentee ballots requested for the 2020 election, because of the Coronavirus pandemic at the time - and therefore cannot be compared. It can be compared however to the Austrian legislative election in 2024 in Vienna, when 288,156 absentee ballots were issued in Vienna to eligible Austrian voters living in the city (excl. Austrians abroad) - or 25.9% of eligible Austrian voters living in Vienna.
Contesting parties The table below lists parties represented in the current Gemeinderat and Landtag. NameIdeologyParty leader(s)2020 resultVotes (%)SeatsCouncillorsSPÖSocial Democratic Party of Austria Social democracyMichael Ludwig41.6%ÖVPAustrian People's Party ConservatismKarl Mahrer20.4%GRÜNEThe Greens – The Green Alternative Green politicsJudith Pühringer Peter Kraus14.8%NEOSNEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum LiberalismChristoph Wiederkehr7.5%FPÖFreedom Party of Austria Dominik Nepp7.1%
The following additional parties/lists will appear on the ballot in all 17 constituencies:
KPÖ und LINKS - Kommunistische Partei Österreichs und LINKS Wien - (short ballot abbreviation: KPÖ) Team HC Strache - Allianz für Österreich - (short ballot abbreviation: HC)
The following additional parties/lists will appear on the ballot only in some of the 17 constituencies:
Soziales Österreich der Zukunft - (short ballot abbreviation: SÖZ) - (in 14/17 constituencies) Pro 23 für ein lebenswertes und zukunftsfittes Liesing - (short ballot abbreviation: PRO) - (in 1/17 constituencies) Plattform Obdachlos - Armut - Arbeitslos - Teuerung - (short ballot abbreviation: HERZ) - (in 1/17 constituencies)
Opinion polling
Recent opinion polling
The poll aggregator Europe Elects lists INSA, Market, Market/Lazarsfeld, Peter Hajek Public Opinion Strategies, Foresight Research Hofinger GmbH, Spectra, Unique Research GmbH, IFDD, DEMOX, OGM, GfK, IMAS, Triple M Matzka and IMAD in its database as reliable pollsters in Austria.
Polling firm/ClientFieldwork dateSamplesizeSPÖÖVPGrüneNEOSFPÖHC KPÖOthersLead 2025 state election27 Apr 2025– 39.4 9.7 14.5 10.0 20.4 1.1 4.1 0.9 19.0Market-Lazarsfeld/oe24.at26–27 April 202578437-3811-1213-148-922-23–4-52-315OGM/ServusTV25–27 April 20251,00037.511.012.59.522.02.53.51.515.5Foresight/Hajek/ORF/APA/ATV/Puls2417–26 April 20253,76437.011.512.58.523.51.54.01.513.5Market-Lazarsfeld/oe24.at17–20 April 2025845371113923–4314IFDD/krone.at15–18 April 20251,00038111392224116Market/derStandard.at7–10 April 2025802381112112124117Unique Research/Heute/ATV/Puls243–10 April 20251,20039111292224117OGM/Kurier4–9 April 202591739121292123218Triple M/news.at28 March–7 April 20251,000401011102314117IFDD/Vienna Green Party28 March–1 April 20251,00039121292124118Market-Lazarsfeld/oe24.at27–31 March 2025836381012924–4314IFDD/w24.at21–24 March 20251,00040111292124119IFDD/krone.at11–15 March 20251,000401012922241182020 state election11 Oct 2020–41.620.414.87.57.13.32.13.221.2
An unscientific, non-representative mock vote of both people who have Austrian citizenship and don't have Austrian citizenship (and therefore can't vote in the Viennese election) found that 47.7% would vote for SPÖ, 19.3% for the Greens, 14.3% for KPÖ, 8.1% for FPÖ, 5.2% for ÖVP, 4.7% for NEOS, and 0.7% for HC. About 60 percent of the 9.797 people voting in the unscientific, non-representative mock vote had Austrian citizenship. This so-called "passport doesn't matter"-poll was organized by the human rights NGO "SOS Mitmensch".
Older opinion polling Polling firm/ClientFieldwork dateSamplesizeSPÖÖVPGrüneNEOSFPÖ KPÖBIERMFGOthersLeadUnique Research/HEUTE27–30 Jan 202580040101192341–217Market-Lazarsfeld/oe24.at20–22 Jan 2025800361216102041–116IFDD/W244–6 Dec 20241,000371112102243–115Market/DER STANDARD6–12 Aug 202477136151091937–117IFDD/W2424–27 Jun 20241,00036121281947–217IFDD/W2421–26 Mar 20241,00036111182148–115IFDD/W2414–19 Dec 20231,02637111182137–216Unique Research/HEUTE2–5 Oct 202381335108823312–112IFDD/WH Media3–5 Jun 20231,00040131172036–020IFDD/WH Media1–7 Mar 20231,000411311720–6–221IFDD/WH Media25–29 Nov 20221,00042119719–8–423IFDD/WH Media5–9 Sep 20221,000421110816–82323TCS-Heuritsch/n.a.Jun 20221,000471010818––4322IFDD/WH Media25–28 Apr 20221,250471110914–53121IFDD/Kronen Zeitung21–25 Feb 202280046129814–64123OGM/Kurier22–24 Feb 2022802471311813–33219Market/DER STANDARD3–7 Feb 2022805461413109––3528IFDD/WH Media/W2412–16 Dec 20221,250451210914–––1031IFDD/Kronen Zeitung4–9 Oct 20211,000451311916–––629Triple M Matzka/W2419–27 Aug 20211,0044515111115–––330Peter Hajek/SPÖ Wien16–20 Jul 2021800451610915–––529Triple M Matzka/W2427 May–4 Jun 20211,0184615111113–––431IFDD/Kronen Zeitung15–22 Apr 2021803461691014–––530Triple M Matzka/W2426 Mar–5 Apr 20211,0144616111113–––330Research Affairs/TZ Österreich6–8 Apr 2021500451791013–––628Unique Research/SPÖ Wien19–25 Feb 202180046199912–––527Triple M Matzka/W245–14 Jan 20211,009441812912–––526OGM/Kurier18–19 Nov 2020800431913108––– 7242020 state election11 Oct 2020–41.620.414.87.57.12.11.8–4.521.2
Projected turnout
68 % (stating that "I will certainly vote.") - ORF/Foresight 70 % (stating that "I will certainly vote.") - oe24.at/Market-Lazarsfeld
Sources: https://wien.orf.at/stories/3302404/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHjfFoRSRJs
Results
Notes
References