The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a

Christian-democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well a ...

and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since January 2025, the party has been led by Christian Stocker (as an acting leader). It is currently the second-largest party in the National Council, with 51 of the 183 seats, and won 26.3% of votes cast in the 2024 legislative election. It holds seats in all nine

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

legislatures, and is part of government in seven, of which it leads six. The ÖVP is a member of the International Democracy Union and the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democracy, Christian democratic, liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other p ...

. It sits with the EPP group in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

; of Austria's 19 MEPs, 5 are members of the ÖVP. It is the second largest party in Europe by membership. An unofficial successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ÖVP was founded immediately following the re-establishment of the

Republic of Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in 1945. Since then, it has been one of the two traditional major parties in Austria, alongside the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). It was the most popular party until 1970, and has traditionally governed in a

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

with the SPÖ. It was the senior partner in grand coalitions from 1945 to 1966 and the junior partner from 1986 to 2000 and 2007–2017. The ÖVP also briefly governed alone from 1966 to 1970. After the 1999 election, the party formed a

coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) until 2003, when a

with the FPÖ splinter Alliance for the Future of Austria was formed, which lasted until 2007.

History

The ÖVP is the successor of the Christian Social Party, a staunchly conservative movement founded in 1893 by Karl Lueger, mayor of

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and highly controversial right-wing populist. Most of the members of the party during its founding belonged to the former Fatherland Front, which was led by chancellor

Engelbert Dollfuss Engelbert Dollfuss (alternatively Dollfuß; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian politician and dictator who served as chancellor of Federal State of Austria, Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and ...

, also a member of the Christian Social Party before the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

. While still sometimes honored by ÖVP members for resisting

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, the regime built by Dollfuss was authoritarian in nature and has been dubbed as Austrofascism. In its present form, the ÖVP was established immediately after the restoration of Austria's independence in 1945 and it has been represented in both the Federal Assembly ever since. In terms of Federal Assembly seats, the ÖVP has consistently been the strongest or second-strongest party and as such it has led or at least been a partner in most Austria's federal cabinets. In the 1945 Austrian legislative election, the ÖVP won a

landslide victory A landslide victory is an election result in which the winning Candidate#Candidates in elections, candidate or political party, party achieves a decisive victory by an overwhelming margin, securing a very large majority of votes or seats far beyo ...

in Austria's first postwar election, winning almost half the popular vote and an absolute majority in the legislature. However, memories of the hyper-partisanship that had plagued the First Republic prompted the ÖVP to maintain the

with the

Communist Party of Austria The Communist Party of Austria (, KPÖ) is a communist party in Austria. Established in 1918 as the Communist Party of Republic of German-Austria, German-Austria (KPDÖ), it is one of the world's oldest Communist party, communist parties. The KP� ...

(KPÖ) and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) that had governed the country since the restoration of independence in early 1945. The ÖVP remained the senior partner in a coalition with the SPÖ until 1966 and governed alone from 1966 to 1970. It reentered the government in 1986, but has never been completely out of power since the restoration of Austrian independence in 1945 due to a longstanding tradition that all major interest groups were to be consulted on policy. After the 1999 Austrian legislative election, several months of negotiations ended in early 2000 when the ÖVP formed a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

with the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) led by Jörg Haider. The FPÖ had won just a few hundred more votes than the ÖVP, but was considered far too controversial to lead a government. The ÖVP's

Wolfgang Schüssel Wolfgang Schüssel (; born 7 June 1945) is a retired Austrian politician. He was Chancellor of Austria for two consecutive terms from February 2000 to January 2007. While being recognised as a rare example of an active reformer in contemporary A ...

became

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

—the first ÖVP Chancellor of Austria since 1970. This caused widespread outrage in Europe and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

imposed informal diplomatic sanctions on Austria, the first time that it imposed sanctions on a member state. Bilateral relations were frozen (including contacts and meetings at an inter-governmental level) and Austrian candidates would not be supported for posts in European Union international offices. Austria threatened to veto all applications by countries for European Union membership until the sanctions were lifted. A few months later, these sanctions were dropped as a result of a fact-finding mission by three former European prime ministers, the so-called "three wise men". The 2002 legislative election resulted in a landslide victory (42.27% of the vote) for the ÖVP under Schüssel. Haider's FPÖ was reduced to 10.16% of the vote. At the state level, the ÖVP has long dominated the rural states of

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

and

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...

. It is less popular in the

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

and in the rural, but less strongly Catholic states of

Burgenland Burgenland (; ; ; Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ''Burgnland''; Slovene language, Slovene: ''Gradiščanska''; ) is the easternmost and least populous Bundesland (Austria), state of Austria. It consists of two statutory city (Austria), statut ...

and

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

. In 2004, it lost its plurality in the State of Salzburg, where they kept its result in seats (14) in 2009. In 2005, it lost its plurality in

for the first time. After the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) split from the FPÖ in 2005, the BZÖ replaced the FPÖ in the government coalition which lasted until 2007. Austria for the first time had a government containing a party that was founded during the parliamentary term. In the 2006 Austrian legislative election, the ÖVP were defeated and after much negotiations agreed to become junior partner in a grand coalition with the SPÖ, with new party chairman Wilhelm Molterer as Finance Minister and

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

under SPÖ leader Alfred Gusenbauer, who became Chancellor. The 2008 Austrian legislative election saw the ÖVP lose 15 seats, with a further 8.35% decrease in its share of the vote. However, the ÖVP won the largest share of the vote (30.0%) in the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent s ...

with 846,709 votes, although their number of seats remained the same. The ÖVP had minor losses in the 2013 Austrian legislative election, and the grand coalition with the SPÖ continued until the 2017 Austrian legislative election, when the ÖVP changed its colour to turquoise and won its first legislative election since 2002. The party underwent a change in its image after Sebastian Kurz became chairman, changing its colour from the traditional black to turquoise, and adopting the alternate name The New People's Party (). It became the largest party after the 2017 election, and formed a

with the FPÖ. This collapsed eighteen months later due to the Ibiza affair, leading to the 2019 election, after which the ÖVP formed a new coalition with The Greens. An investigation into the Ibiza affair by a parliamentary subcommittee, an unstable Cabinet plagued by resignations, and ultimately a corruption inquiry, forced Kurz to resign the chancellorship in October 2021. Kurz was replaced by Karl Nehammer in 2021 as party leader and Chancellor. In the 2024 legislative election, the party fell to second behind the FPÖ. Following the surge of the FPÖ in various polls throughout late 2024 and early 2025, as well as the collapse of the ÖVP-SPÖ-NEOS coalition talks, Nehammer resigned as party leader and was replaced with Christian Stocker as acting leader. After failed talks with the FPÖ, the party would eventually form a coalition with the SPÖ and NEOS, with Stocker as Chancellor.

Ideology and platform

The ÖVP is described as

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

, and liberal-conservative. The party has also been described as a catch-all party of the

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

, in the vein of the

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 ...

. For most of its existence, the ÖVP has explicitly defined itself as

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and anti-socialist, with the ideals of

subsidiarity Subsidiarity is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate or local level that is consistent with their resolution. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines subsid ...

as defined by the

encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally fr ...

Quadragesimo anno ''Quadragesimo anno'' () (Latin for "In the 40th Year") is an encyclical issued by Pope Pius XI on 15 May 1931, 40 years after Leo XIII's encyclical '' Rerum novarum'', further developing Catholic social teaching. Unlike Leo XIII, who addre ...

'' and decentralisation. For the first election after World War II, the ÖVP presented itself as the Austrian Party (), was anti-Marxist and regarded itself as the Party of the centre (). The ÖVP consistently held power—either alone or in so-called black–red coalition with the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ)—until 1970, when the SPÖ formed a minority government with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). The ÖVP's economic policies during the era generally upheld a social market economy. The party's campaign for the 2017 legislative election under the party chairman Sebastian Kurz was dominated by a rightward shift in policy which included a promised crackdown on

illegal immigration Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...

and a fight against

political Islam Political Islam is the interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It advocates the formation of state and society according to (the advocates understanding of) Islamic principles, where Islam serves as a source of poli ...

, making it more similar to the program of the FPÖ, the party that Kurz chose as his coalition partner after the ÖVP won the election. The party underwent a change in its image after Kurz became chairman, changing its colour from the traditional

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue. The robi ...

, and adopting the name The new People's Party ().

Organization

Symbols

ÖVP-Logo (80er).svg, Logo used in the 1980s ÖVP Logo.svg, Logo before 2017 Austrian People's Party logo.png, Logo with

flag A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...

before 2017 Volkspartei Logo 2018.svg, Party logo 2017 - 2022 Logo neue VP tuerkis.png,

Turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue. The robi ...

variant of the Party-Logo 2017 - 2022 Volkspartei Logo 2022.svg, Party Logo since 2022

Chairpersons since 1945

The chart below shows a timeline of ÖVP chairpersons and the Chancellors of Austria. The left black bar shows all the chairpersons (''Bundesparteiobleute'', abbreviated as CP) of the ÖVP party and the right bar shows the corresponding make-up of the Austrian government at that time. The red (SPÖ) and black (ÖVP) colours correspond to which party led the federal government (''Bundesregierung'', abbreviated as ''Govern.''). The last names of the respective Chancellors are shown, with the Roman numeral standing for the cabinets. ImageSize = width:400 height:530 PlotArea = width:350 height:450 left:50 bottom:50 Legend = columns:3 left:50 top:25 columnwidth:50 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1945 till:2023 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1945 # there is no automatic collision detection, # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap Colors = id:ÖVP value:gray(0.25) legend:ÖVP id:SPÖ value:red legend:SPÖ id:independent value:gray(0.85) legend:independent # id:FPÖ value:blue legend:FPÖ Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar Define $dy = -4 # adjust height PlotData = bar:CP color:red width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S from:1945 till:1945 shift:($dx,1) color:ÖVP text: Leopold Kunschak from:1945 till:1952 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Leopold Figl from:1952 till:1960 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Julius Raab from:1960 till:1963 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Alfons Gorbach from:1963 till:1970 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Josef Klaus from:1970 till:1971 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Hermann Withalm from:1971 till:1975 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Karl Schleinzer from:1975 till:1979 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Josef Taus from:1979 till:1989 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Alois Mock from:1989 till:1991 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Josef Riegler from:1991 till:1995 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Erhard Busek from:1995 till:2007 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:

from:2007 till:2008 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Wilhelm Molterer from:2008 till:2011 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Josef Pröll from:2011 till:2014 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Michael Spindelegger from:2014 till:2017 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Reinhold Mitterlehner from:2017 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Sebastian Kurz from:2021 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Karl Nehammer bar:Govern. color:red width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:7 from:1945 till:1946 shift:($dx,-2) color:SPÖ text:Renner from:1946 till:1949 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Figl I from:1949 till:1952 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Figl II from:1952 till:1953 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Figl III from:1953 till:1956 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Raab I from:1956 till:1959 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Raab II from:1959 till:1960 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Raab III from:1960 till:1961 shift:($dx,-2) color:ÖVP text:Raab IV from:1961 till:1963 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Gorbach I from:1963 till:1964 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Gorbach II from:1964 till:1966 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Klaus I from:1966 till:1970 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Klaus II from:1970 till:1971 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Kreisky I from:1971 till:1975 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Kreisky II from:1975 till:1979 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Kreisky III from:1979 till:1983 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Kreisky IV from:1983 till:1986 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Sinowatz from:1986 till:1987 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Vranitzky I from:1987 till:1990 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Vranitzky II from:1990 till:1994 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Vranitzky III from:1994 till:1996 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Vranitzky IV from:1996 till:1997 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Vranitzky V from:1997 till:2000 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Klima from:2000 till:2003 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Schüssel I from:2003 till:2007 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Schüssel II from:2007 till:2008 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Gusenbauer from:2008 till:2016 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Faymann from:2016 till:2017 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Kern from:2017 till:2019 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Kurz I from:2019 till:2020 shift:($dx,$dy) color:independent text:Bierlein from:2020 till:2021 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Kurz II from:2021 till:2021 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Schallenberg from:2021 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Nehammer

Election results

National Council

President

European Parliament

State Parliaments

Notes

References

External links

*
Austrian People's Party Country Studies

Austrian People's Party
at the European People's Party website {{Authority control Austrian People's Party Liberal parties in Austria Conservative parties in Austria Liberal conservative parties Christian democratic parties in Europe Political parties in Austria Politics of Austria Articles which contain graphical timelines Pro-European political parties in Austria