National Council elections

Wild ups and downs for black-red-blue in Salzburg

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, stock.adobe.com)

The "Krone" looks back at the National Council elections of the last 79 years and shows the developments of the major parties. The past two decades in particular have seen major swings in election results.

Five years ago, the People's Party in Salzburg achieved the best result in the federal states. This Sunday, however, the 46.4 percent seem miles away. "The big gap between first and second place was particularly striking in 2019. The ÖVP had almost three times as many votes as the SPÖ. That has never happened before in a Salzburg-wide election," says Gernot Filipp, Head of State Statistics. This means that the ÖVP's ten-year upswing in Salzburg has probably come to an end. Nothing new for the Black Party, which has always zigzagged over the past 79 years. This has also been the case for the Freedom Party and the Greens - especially in the last two decades.

SPÖ reached its lowest point five years ago
Of the major parties, the SPÖ is an exception. After the ups and downs until 1979, it then only went downwards. Initially gradually, since the 2002 national elections the Salzburg Social Democrats have only suffered losses. They reached their lowest point five years ago. Just 16.4 percent of the vote went to the Reds back then. Still, that was enough for second place in the state.

In 2019, the ÖVP won by a record margin in Salzburg.

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

The Freedom Party could achieve a new record result today. They won the most votes in Salzburg in 1999 with 29.4 percent. Back then, they were just ahead of the SPÖ and the ÖVP. After that, the Blue Party's results have always fluctuated up and down. The range fluctuated between 10.4 and 24.4 percent.

Green resurrection two years after the debacle
The Greens also experienced erratic growth. After a record 14.8 percent in 2013, they slipped into a debacle in 2017 (4 percent) only to celebrate their resurrection two years later with 12.6 percent. The impact of five years in government will become known at around 5 pm.

By contrast, the Neos party, which ran for the first time in 2013, only went uphill. Starting with 4.6 percent, the Pinken reached 5.7 percent in 2017 and 8.4 percent two years later. A further upward trend seems possible here, even though the state party was kicked out of the state parliament last year after years in government in Salzburg.