2013 Carinthian State Election
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The 2013 Carinthian state election was held on 3 March 2013 to elect the members of the Landtag of Carinthia. The election saw a massive shift in Carinthian politics, which had been dominated by the
Freedom Party in Carinthia The Freedom Party in Carinthia (, FPK, alternative English translations: Carinthian Freedom Party, Freedom Party of Carinthia, The Freedomites in Carinthia, or Carinthia Freedom Party) was a political party in Austria, operating in the federal s ...
(FPK) and Governor
Jörg Haider Jörg Haider (; 26 January 1950 – 11 October 2008) was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Au ...
since the 1990s. After Haider's death in 2008, he was succeeded by
Gerhard Dörfler Gerhard Dörfler (born 29 May 1955) is an Austrian politician, who served as Governor of Carinthia from 27 October 2008 (acting since 11 October), following Governor Jörg Haider's sudden death in a car accident, to 28 March 2013. Dörfler is a ...
. After winning the 2009 election, Dörfler's government suffered a string of scandals and the FPK's popularity plummeted. Ultimately, they suffered a catastrophic loss of 28
percentage point A percentage point or percent point is the unit (measurement), unit for the difference (mathematics), arithmetic difference between two percentages. For example, moving up from 40 percent to 44 percent is an increase of 4 percentage points (altho ...
s, the worst ever suffered by a party in post-war Austria. They finished on 16.8%, a distant second place behind the
Social Democratic Party of Austria 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 ...
(SPÖ), which won 37.1%. The
Austrian People's Party 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 ...
(ÖVP) retained third place, but declined to 14.4%. Apart from the SPÖ, other beneficiaries of the FPK's collapse were
The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * The Greens (Benin) *The Greens (Bulgaria) * Greens of Bosnia and He ...
,
Team Stronach The Team Stronach for Austria () was a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in Austria founded by and named after Austrian-Canadian businessman Frank Stronach. It was dissolved in August 2017. History The new party was registered ...
, and
Alliance for the Future of Austria The Alliance for the Future of Austria (; BZÖ) is a right-wing populist, national conservative political party in Austria. The BZÖ was founded on 3 April 2005 by Jörg Haider as a moderate splinter from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) ...
(BZÖ), who each made significant gains.


Background

Prior to amendments made in 2017, the Carinthian constitution mandated that cabinet positions in the state government (state councillors, ) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as
Proporz ''Proporz'' (, from , "proportionality") is a long-standing practice in the Second Austrian Republic in which positions in government are distributed between political parties in a manner proportional to their electoral or public support. More b ...
. As such, the government was a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualified for at least one state councillor. In 2005, then-Governor and former federal leader of the
Freedom Party of Austria 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 part ...
(FPÖ) Jörg Haider split from the party due to internal disputes, and founded the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ). The Freedom Party in Carinthia, then the FPÖ's state branch and led by Haider, changed its allegiance and became the Carinthian branch of the BZÖ. The large majority of its leadership and structure followed, with only a small minority defecting to the FPÖ's new Carinthian branch. Shortly after the 2008 federal election, Haider was killed in a car accident. He was succeeded by Gerhard Dörfler, who became the new Governor of Carinthia and leader of the FPK. In the
2009 Carinthian state election The 2009 Carinthian state election was held on 1 March 2009 to elect the members of the Landtag of Carinthia. The election took place five months after the death of List of governors of Carinthia, Governor Jörg Haider, long-time leader of the Fre ...
, Dörfler led the party to a strong victory under the name "Freedom Party in Carinthia – BZÖ List Jörg Haider". The FPÖ's new state branch won 3.8%, failing to enter the Landtag. In December 2009, the FPK split from the BZÖ in protest of new federal leader
Josef Bucher Josef Bucher (born 19 August 1965) is an Austrian politician and former leader of the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) as well as former Member of Parliament for the party. Divorced with two children, Bucher is a hotel owner. After the ...
's policies, becoming an independent party operating in Carinthia. The party announced it would support the FPÖ on a national level, while the FPÖ's state branch would be dissolved. The FPÖ and FPK compared their new relationship to that of the
CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties ( ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian democratic and conservative political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social U ...
in Germany. The BZÖ subsequently founded a new Carinthian branch to compete with the FPK. Between 2009 and 2013, Dörfler's government suffered a string of scandals involving current and former government officials, including the late Haider. In January 2010, Vice Governor Uwe Scheuch was exposed for offering Austrian citizenship to a Russian investor in exchange for investments in Carinthia and donations to the then-BZÖ. Scheuch resigned from all political positions in mid-2012 and was found guilty in December. In July 2012, a government tax consultant was caught up in a corruption scandal involving the FPK and BZÖ, which led to an early election being scheduled for March 2013.


Electoral system

The 36 seats of the Landtag of Carinthia are elected via
open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a Political party, party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, in which party lists ...
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...
in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between four multi-member constituencies. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 5 percent state-wide electoral threshold. Seats are distributed in constituencies according to the
Hare quota The Hare quota (sometimes called the simple, ideal, or Hamilton quota) is the number of voters represented by each legislator in an idealized system of proportional representation where every vote is used to elect someone. The Hare quota is eq ...
, with any remaining seats allocated using the
D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...
at the state level, to ensure overall proportionality between a party's vote share and its share of seats.


Contesting parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag. In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, six parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot. *
Team Stronach The Team Stronach for Austria () was a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in Austria founded by and named after Austrian-Canadian businessman Frank Stronach. It was dissolved in August 2017. History The new party was registered ...
(''TS'') *
Alliance for the Future of Austria The Alliance for the Future of Austria (; BZÖ) is a right-wing populist, national conservative political party in Austria. The BZÖ was founded on 3 April 2005 by Jörg Haider as a moderate splinter from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) ...
(''BZÖ'') * Pirate Party of Austria (''PIRAT'') * Livable Party of Austria (''LPÖ'') * Social Alliance Carinthia (''ASOK'') * List Strong (''STARK'')


Results


Results by constituency


References

{{Austrian local elections State elections in Austria 2013 elections in Austria March 2013 in Austria