1966 Austrian legislative election
6 March 1966
165 seats in the National Council of Austria
83 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Josef Klaus Bruno Pittermann Friedrich Peter
Party ÖVP SPÖ FPÖ
Last election 45.43%, 81 seat 44.00%, 76 seats 7.04%, 8 seats
Seats won 85 74 6
Seat change Increase 4 Decrease 2 Decrease 2
Popular vote 2,191,109 1,928,985 242,570
Percentage 48.35% 42.56% 5.35%
Swing Increase2.92pp Decrease1.44pp Decrease1.69pp
Results of the election, showing seats won by constituency and nationwide. Constituencies are shaded according to the first-place party.
Chancellor before election

Josef Klaus
ÖVP

 Elected Chancellor

Josef Klaus
ÖVP

Parliamentary elections were held in Austria on 6 March 1966.[1] The result was a victory for the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), which won 85 of the 165 seats. Voter turnout was 94%.[2]

During the campaign, ÖVP Chancellor Josef Klaus (who had succeeded Alfons Gorbach in 1964) had called for an end to the grand coalition with the Socialist Party of Austria (SPÖ) that had governed since 1945. The election results seemingly left Klaus free to break off the coalition; the ÖVP won an outright majority of three seats, enough to govern alone. However, Klaus reversed himself and proposed a new coalition agreement. The SPÖ leadership supported a renewed coalition, but talks failed when the SPÖ rank and file balked at the proposed coalition terms.[3] Klaus then formed an exclusively ÖVP cabinet, the first one-party government of the Second Republic.[4] It was also the first purely centre-right government in Austria since before World War II.

As of the 2019 elections, this is the only time in the ÖVP's history where it has governed in a majority. The ÖVP had won a majority of seats once before, during the first postwar election in 1945, but opted to lead a grand coalition rather than govern alone.

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Austrian People's Party2,191,10948.3585+4
Socialist Party of Austria1,928,98542.5674–2
Freedom Party of Austria242,5705.356–2
Democratic Progressive Party148,5283.280New
Communists and Left Socialists18,6360.4100
Liberal Party of Austria1,5710.030New
Marxist–Leninist Party of Austria4860.010New
Total4,531,885100.001650
Valid votes4,531,88598.86
Invalid/blank votes52,0851.14
Total votes4,583,970100.00
Registered voters/turnout4,886,81893.80
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

  1. ↑ Nohlen, Dieter; Stöver, Philip (31 May 2010). Elections in Europe: A data handbook. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. p. 196. ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7.
  2. ↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p215
  3. ↑ Austria: a country study. Government Printing Office for the Library of Congress, 1994.
  4. ↑ Austria at Encyclopædia Britannica
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