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Austria The 1945 Election and Consolidation of the Austrian Government
The first national election since 1930 was held on November
25, 1945. Nazi Party members were barred from participation. This
exclusion sharply limited electoral participation by the
nationalist camp, and no party was formed to represent its
viewpoint. The ÖVP was thus able to monopolize the entire antileft vote. Voters gave overwhelming support to the two democratic
parties: the ÖVP received nearly 50 percent of the vote and
eighty-five seats in the Nationalrat, and the SPÖ received 45
percent of the vote and seventy-six seats. The KPÖ received only
5 percent--well below its anticipated 25 percent--and four seats.
Although the ÖVP thus held an absolute majority in
parliament, the government, headed by Chancellor Leopold Figl of
the ÖVP, preserved the three-party coalition. The distribution of
cabinet seats was adjusted, however, with the KPÖ receiving only
a specially created and unimportant Ministry for Electrification.
In December parliament elected Renner to the largely ceremonial
position of president of the republic. With the Austrian
government clearly evolving along democratic lines, the Western
Allies grew more supportive, and the Soviet Union grew
increasingly hostile.
In 1946, however, the Soviet Union agreed to changes in the
Four Power Control Agreement that governed the relationship
between the Four Powers and the Austrian government, thus
weakening their influence. Originally, Austrian legislation had
to be unanimously approved by the Allied Council, effectively
giving each of the Allies veto-power. In light of the Austrian
government's democratic bent, the Western Allies favored allowing
laws passed by the government to take effect unless the Allied
Council unanimously rejected them. Although the Soviet Union was
generally opposed to surrendering its veto power, it hoped to
extract an agreement from the Austrians that would give the
Soviet Union effective control over Austrian petroleum resources
and thus did not want the other Allies to be able to veto any
eventual agreement. In June 1946, the Allied powers agreed to a
compromise. Agreements between one of the occupying powers and
Austria would not be subject to a veto. "Constitutional laws"
would require the approval of the Allied Council and thus remain
subject to vetoes by the individual Allies, but all other laws
would take effect in thirty-one days unless rejected by the
council.
The Soviet Union only realized the implications of the new
Control Agreement when a dispute arose over German assets in
Austria. In early July 1946, the Soviet Union confiscated German
assets in its occupation zone as war reparations--mines,
industrial facilities, agricultural land, and the entire Austrian
oil production industry. To protect the Austrian economy from
such Soviet seizures, the Austrian government nationalized German
assets. The Soviet Union attempted to veto the nationalization
law but was rebuffed by the other Allies, who made it clear that
the Austrian government had wide latitude in determining whether
a particular law was a constitutional law or not. Although the
Soviet Union was able to prevent implementation of the
nationalization law in its occupation zone, the 1946 Control
Agreement significantly enhanced the power of the Austrian
government. By 1953 more than 550 laws had been implemented over
the objection of the Soviet Union.
Data as of December 1993
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