Austrian legislative election, 2002

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The election for the National Council of 24 November 2002 took place prematurely, only three years after the last elections. Since early 2000, Austria had been ruled by a coalition under Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel of the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), which had then only been in third place, closely trailing the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), with which it entered into a coalition. During the summer of 2002, controversy within the FPÖ increased, which centered around plans for a tax reform that had been postponed because of the floods in August. This culminated in the Knittelfeld putsch, initiated by Jörg Haider, governor of Carinthia, and members of the nationalist wing of the party. This induced Vice Chancellor Susanne Riess-Passer, finance minister Karlheinz Grasser and other more pragmatic FPÖ members in important positions to resign. Chancellor Schüssel then announced new elections.

Surprisingly to virtually all observers, Schüssel's ÖVP jumped from third to first place in the electorate, gaining the largest number of seats in the National Council for the first time since 1966, ahead of the opposition social democrats. The FPÖ lost almost two thirds of its voters.

After negotiations with the other parties, Schüssel renewed the coalition with the severely weakened FPÖ. He is now often credited for having "taken away the magic" from Jörg Haider by allowing his party to participate in the federal government.

e•d Summary of the 24 November 2002 National Council of Austria election results

Parties		Votes	+/-	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Austrian People's Party (Österreichische Volkspartei)	2,076,833	+833,161	42.30	+15.39	79	+27
	Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs)	1,792,499	+260,051	36.51	+3.36	69	+4
	Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs)	491,328	-752,759	10.01	-16.90	18	-34
	The Greens – The Green Alternative (Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative)	464,980	+122,720	9.47	+2.07	17	+3
	Liberal Forum (Liberales Forum)	48,083	-120,529	0.98	-2.67	—	±0
	Communist Party of Austria (Kommunistische Partei Österreichs)	27,568	+5,552	0.56	+0.08	—	±0
	Socialist Left Party (Sozialistische LinksPartei) 1	3,906	*	0.08	*	—	*
	The Democrats (Die Demokraten) 2	2,439	*	0.05	*	—	*
	Christian Electoral Community (Christliche Wählergemeinschaft) 3	2,009	-1,021	0.04	-0.03	—	±0
	Total (turnout 84.27 %; +3.85)	4,909,645		100.0		183
Notes: * Did not stand in 1999. 1 Stood only in Vienna. 2 Stood only in Vienna and Vorarlberg. 3 Stood only in Vorarlberg.
Source: Siemens Austria, BMI

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[edit] Further reading

• Luther, Kurt Richard (April 2003). "The self-destruction of a right-wing populist party? The Austrian parliamentary election of 2002". West European Politics 26 (2): 136-152. doi:10.1080/01402380512331341141.