An election was held in 2009 to elect the
delegation
Delegation is the process of distributing and entrusting work to another person.Schermerhorn, J., Davidson, P., Poole, D., Woods, P., Simon, A., & McBarron, E. (2017). ''Management'' (6th ed., pp. 282–286). Brisbane: John Wiley & Sons Australia. ...
from
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 ...
to 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 ...
. Austria will have 17 seats in the European Parliament, instead of the 18 that the country had before the re-allocation of seats.
Through the Lisbon Treaty, the number of seats was graded to 19, so the SPÖ and BZÖ parties got additional seats, which are currently
Observer MEPs.
Contesting parties
SPÖ
The
SPÖ
The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...
announced that their frontrunner will be current MEP
Hannes Swoboda.
ÖVP
The
ÖVP
The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic 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 p ...
surprisingly selected former Interior Minister
Ernst Strasser
Ernst Strasser (* 29 April 1956 in Grieskirchen, Upper Austria) is a former Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) politician and former Federal Minister of the Interior in Austria (2000–2004), Member of the European Parliament (2009–2011) and bear ...
to lead their party. 2004 frontrunner and MEP
Othmar Karas
Othmar Karas (born 24 December 1957) is an Austrian politician who served as the First Vice-President of the European Parliament since January 2022, having been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 1999. He is a member of the Austrian ...
, initially the favourite for the first place on the ÖVP party list, was listed in second place. Nonetheless, a large number of famous ÖVP members, including all living former ÖVP chairmen, launched a supporting committee for Karas.
FPÖ
Andreas Mölzer
Andreas Mölzer (born 2 December 1952) is an Austrian politician and former Member of the European Parliament for the Freedom Party of Austria.
Biography
Born in Leoben, Styria, Andreas Mölzer is of Styrian origin and attended grammar school in ...
was selected to lead the
FPÖ
The Freedom Party of Austria (, FPÖ) is a political party in Austria, variously described as far-right, right-wing populist, national-conservative, and Eurosceptic. It has been led by Herbert Kickl since 2021. It is the largest of five par ...
's lists again, and
Heinz-Christian Strache
Heinz-Christian Strache (; born 12 June 1969) is an Austrian politician and dental technician who served as Vice-Chancellor of Austria from 2017 to 2019 before resigning owing to his involvement in the Ibiza affair. He was also Minister of ...
claimed that up to 30% were possible; Mölzer stated that he wanted to reach 17.5% again, as in the 2008 elections.
Die Grünen
At the
Greens' party congress on 17–18 January 2009, long-time MEP
Johannes Voggenhuber
Johannes Voggenhuber (born 5 June 1950) is an Austrian politician and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Austrian Green Party, which is part of the European Greens. He was vice president of the Parliament's Constitutional A ...
was not selected for the first place on the party list, with
Ulrike Lunacek being elected instead; Voggenhuber had announced he would not stand in any other place on the list and thus will withdraw from politics after the election. However, in the days after the decision, it was not ruled out that Voggenhuber might run on his own; he later emphatically stated he would not do that. It was announced in late January that he might stand in the 16th place on the list, making it possible for him to be ranked first in preferences with more than 7% of the Greens' votes in the election. The party leadership rejected this possibility in a meeting on 30 January 2009, angering many of the Greens' supporters.
Cyriak Schwaighofer
Cyriak Harris, known mononymously as Cyriak (), his B3ta username Mutated Monty, and Mouldy in the Doom community, is an English freelance animator, artist, composer, and author from Brighton. He is known for his surreal and bizarre short web ...
, the Greens' leader in Salzburg, then stated he would do what he could to get Voggenhuber on the list as a regional MEP candidate for Salzburg, but the Greens' leadership again rejected this idea.
BZÖ
The
BZÖ picked
Ewald Stadler
Ewald Johann Stadler (born 21 May 1961), is an Austrian right-wing conservative politician. He was a member of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) until 2007, and a member of the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) from 2007 until 2013.
H ...
to head their list; they did not want to run together with the
Libertas Party, but stated that they were interested in cooperation after the election.
Hans-Peter Martin
MEP
Hans-Peter Martin
Hans-Peter Martin (born 11 August 1957) is an Austrian author and journalist and former politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament between 1999 and 2014.
Journalist and author
Born in Bregenz, Austria, Martin graduated from the ...
, who got 14% of the vote in the 2004 elections as an Independent, announced on 27 April that he would run again, stating he was sure he would defend his strong third-place showing in the 2004 elections.
Young Liberals
Liberal Forum
The Liberal Forum (, LiF) was a centrist, liberal political party in Austria. The party was active from February 1993 to January 2014, when the party merged into NEOS – The New Austria.
A member of the Liberal International and the Allianc ...
MEP
Karin Resetarits gave the
Young Liberals (a sub-organisation of the LIF, both its youth party and its student organisation) the possibility to contest the election. It later emerged that the LIF would in fact have liked to contest the election, but that it had counted on Resetarits' signature in order to contest the election; as she had given it to the Young Liberals, they could stand in the election while the LIF could not.
KPÖ
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� ...
announced on 7 March that it will participate in the elections under the list name "Communist Party of Austria – European Left".
Opinion polls
Results
References
{{Austrian elections
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
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 ...
European Parliament elections in Austria