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Austria THE KREISKY YEARS, 1970-83
Electoral Politics in the Kreisky Era
As the Austrian economy developed in the 1950s and 1960s, the
nature of the electorate slowly shifted. The declining economic
importance of agriculture and forestry undermined the rural base
of the ÖVP. Further, economic growth was occurring primarily in
the service sector, not in heavy industry or manufacturing, the
traditional base of the SPÖ. By 1970 service-sector employees
constituted just under 40 percent of the working population, and
both parties sought to position themselves in the middle of the
political spectrum in order to attract these voters. Under the
leadership of Bruno Kreisky, the SPÖ proved more adept at
redefining itself in this new era.
Kreisky's personal popularity played a large part in the
success of the SPÖ, and the party capitalized on this by
campaigning on slogans like "Kreisky--who else?" and "Austria
needs Kreisky." Although Kreisky came from a wealthy Viennese
Jewish family, he declared himself an agnostic. Kreisky had been
imprisoned in the mid- and late 1930s for political activity, but
the Nazi regime eventually allowed him to emigrate to Sweden,
where he became acquainted with Swedish socialism and met Willy
Brandt, the future leader of the German Social Democrats. Kreisky
returned to Austria after the war and by the early 1950s was
working in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and becoming active
in party politics.
Kreisky was deeply involved in efforts to broaden SPÖ appeal
in the 1950s. As chancellor, he continued to move the party
toward the political center, reaching out toward swing voters and
Roman Catholic and rural constituencies. Indicative of SPÖ
reconciliation with the mainstream of Austrian culture and
history was campaign literature in 1979 that featured Kreisky
sitting beneath a portrait of Emperor Franz Joseph. As the
differences between the two major political parties lessened, the
ÖVP found it difficult to enunciate a distinct political identity
because Kreisky so successfully occupied the middle ground.
In the election of 1970, the SPÖ emerged as the largest party
but lacked a parliamentary majority. An attempt to revive the
grand coalition failed. And Kreisky could not lure the FPÖ into a
coalition. But the FPÖ did agree to cooperate in passing the SPÖ
budget in exchange for electoral reform. Kreisky thus formed a
minority government in 1970, and another election was held under
a new electoral law in October 1971.
The electoral reform raised the number of seats in the
Nationalrat from 165 to 183 and increased the degree of
proportionality between a party's percentage of the popular vote
and its parliamentary seats, thus boosting the fortunes of small
parties. The SPÖ emerged from the election with an absolute
majority, winning a bare 50 percent of the vote and ninety-three
seats in the enlarged Nationalrat. The VPÖ won only eighty seats
and 43 percent of the vote. The FPÖ won 5.5 percent of the vote,
the same as in 1970, and held ten seats.
The election of 1975 repeated the 1971 results. But in 1979,
the SPÖ increased its share of the vote to 51 percent and won
ninety-five seats. The ÖVP declined to just below 42 percent and
won only seventy-seven seats. The FPÖ improved its performance
slightly, getting 6 percent of the vote and taking eleven seats.
While the electorate had opted for a Socialist chancellor, it
also continued to elect a Socialist or Socialist-backed
presidential candidate throughout the Kreisky era. Six months
before the 1970 parliamentary election, Jonas won reelection,
defeating Kurt Waldheim. Jonas died in 1974 and was succeeded by
Kreisky's foreign minister, Rudolf Kirchschläger. Although he was
not a member of the SPÖ, Kirchschläger, a practicing Catholic and
a political independent, was a Kreisky associate, having been
brought into Kreisky's cabinet in 1970. His reelection bid was
unopposed in 1980.
Data as of December 1993
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