National Council election 2024

These small parties are still vying for signatures

KPÖ, Bier, Wandel or the Madeleine Petrovic list - they all want to be in the National Council elections.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER, APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH, APA/FLORIAN WIESER, Wandel Design Team)

The collection of signatures for the National Council election on September 29 began on Tuesday. Parties or groups wishing to stand as candidates that cannot count on the support of three members of the National Council must collect declarations of support from this "deadline". The KPÖ and the Beer Party are considered to have the best chances. Beer Party leader Dominik Wlazny expressed confidence on Tuesday that the necessary 2,600 would be collected quickly.

He criticized the procedure when he himself signed a declaration of support for his party in a magistrate's office not far from Vienna's Mariahilferstraße on Tuesday morning. "It's not always made easy for us," he said, adding that an appointment was needed in Klosterneuburg, for example. His party's goal is, of course, to enter the National Council. The party leader has no doubt that the Beer Party will be on the ballot paper. In the 2022 federal presidential election, Wlazny was the first to submit the necessary 6,000 declarations of support to the federal electoral authority. The party plans to present its initial content on Thursday.

Beer party leader Dominik Wlazny wants to be elected to the National Council.

(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

As far as collecting declarations of support is concerned, parties wishing to run must collect between 100 and 500 declarations of support per federal province. They have until August 2 (5 p.m.) to do so. A list needs a total of 2,600 signatures to stand for election throughout Austria.

KPÖ with good chances of running
The Communist Party has run in every National Council election to date, but was only actually represented in the National Council from 1945 to 1959, when it achieved results of around five percent. In the last National Council election in 2019, the KPÖ received 0.69% of the vote. It performed significantly better in this year's EU elections, achieving 2.96%, its best nationwide result since 1962.

Tobias Schweiger (left) is entering the race as the KPÖ's lead candidate.

(Bild: APA/ERWIN SCHERIAU)

The Communists have previously gained importance at regional level, particularly in Styria, where they have been in the provincial parliament since 2005 and have even held the office of mayor in the provincial capital of Graz since 2021 with Elke Kahr. Last year, the KPÖ also entered the provincial parliament in Salzburg, while in Innsbruck the KPÖ has been represented in the municipal council since April. The lead candidate for the national elections is federal spokesperson Tobias Schweiger. The 34-year-old from Graz was once active in the Young Greens, co-founded the Young Left in 2017 and then became active in the KPÖ.

Small parties canvass for signatures
Numerous groups such as "Wandel", the list of former Green Party leader Madeleine Petrovic, the anti-vaccination MFG (Menschen-Freiheit-Grundrechte), the "SERVUS-Partei" founded by a Carinthian entrepreneur, the electoral alliance "Die Gelben", the "Unabhängigen Österreichs (DUO)", the "Demokratische Alternative", the "Bestes Österreich" list and the "Liste GAZA" have announced their intention to collect signatures.

The Wandel party wants to be on the ballot under the name "None of them".

(Bild: Wandel Design Team)

Ex-Green Madeleine Petrovic is campaigning with "peace and animal welfare".

(Bild: APA/FLORIAN WIESER)

Martin Gollner, Green and party chairman of the Yellow Party

(Bild: APA/KERSTIN SCHELLER)

Joachim Aigner wants to enter the National Council with the anti-vaccination MFG.

(Bild: MFG Klub OÖ)

The "YES TO AUSTRIA" list led by former BZÖ Secretary General Christian Ebner is also campaigning for votes. As he announced in a press release on Tuesday, he wants to run with his list in the National Council elections in order to "push for an exit from the EU's asylum policy and the reintroduction of national border protection". He also wants to campaign for lower taxes and the "fight against social abuse".

The campaign spending cap also begins on Tuesday. From this day until the ballot, the parties may not spend more than 8.66 million euros on the election campaign. There are severe penalties for exceeding this limit. Wlazny jokingly said: "We won't reach the almost nine million" - which would be rather unusual for a young party with limited resources.