2010 Austrian presidential election

2010 Austrian presidential election
← 2004 25 April 2010 (2010-04-25) 2016 →
Turnout53.57%
 
Candidate Heinz Fischer Barbara Rosenkranz Rudolf Gehring
Party Independent (SPÖ) FPÖ Christian Party
Popular vote 2,508,373 481,923 171,668
Percentage 79.33% 15.24% 5.43%
President before election

Heinz Fischer
Independent (SPÖ)

Elected President

Heinz Fischer
Independent (SPÖ)

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Presidential elections were held in Austria on 25 April 2010,[1] the twelfth election of an Austrian head of state since 1951. The candidates were President Heinz Fischer (independent, formerly SPÖ), Barbara Rosenkranz (FPÖ) and Rudolf Gehring (CPÖ). Heinz Fischer won with just under 80% of the valid votes. Voter turnout was a historic low of 54%.

Candidates

Social Democratic Party of Austria

Incumbent President Heinz Fischer (independent, former member of the Social Democratic Party) announced on 23 November 2009 that he will seek a second term.[2] According to a 27 June 2009, Gallup poll for the newspaper Österreich, Fischer had a job approval rating of 80%.[3]

Austrian People's Party

There were rumours that the candidate of the Austrian People's Party would be either Governor of Lower Austria Erwin Pröll or president of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Christoph Leitl. On 13 October 2009 Pröll announced that he would not run for the presidency and that he would remain Governor of Lower Austria.[4] Leitl and former governor of Styria Waltraud Klasnic also declined a presidential run.[5] On 25 February 2010, the People's Party announced that it would not nominate a candidate, and would not officially support any candidate.[6]

Freedom Party of Austria

The Freedom Party announced in June 2009 that it would definitely field a candidate "to prevent Fischer['s reelection]". Possible candidates mentioned included Martin Graf, Norbert Steger, Siegfried Dillersberger, Norbert Gugerbauer, Dieter Böhmdorfer and Wilhelm Brauneder.[7][8][9] After the Carinthian branch of the Alliance for the Future of Austria broke away to re-unite with the Freedom Party, it was rumoured that Barbara Rosenkranz would be their candidate.[10] In early January 2010, Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Freedom Party, guaranteed that the party would nominate a candidate to assure that Fischer would not run unopposed.[11] On 28 February 2010, Strache announced in the Kronen Zeitung that the Freedom Party would nominate Barbara Rosenkranz as its presidential candidate.[12]

Alliance for the Future of Austria

Alliance for the Future of Austria leader Josef Bucher and General Secretary Stefan Petzner voiced their support for a presidential candidacy of Claudia Haider, widow of former Alliance leader Jörg Haider, by inviting the Greens and the Freedom Party to form a non-partisan committee. Carinthia Governor Gerhard Dörfler spoke out against such a candidacy, because he "wouldn't like to join forces with Heinz-Christian Strache's [Freedom Party]", but nonetheless said that Claudia Haider would be a "good candidate, who could finance her campaign on her own". On 17 August, Haider announced that she would not run for president.[13][14] On 26 February 2010, Bucher said that he might run as a candidate for his party, because "he could appeal to [People's Party] voters".[15] On 1 March 2010, the Alliance announced that Bucher would not stand as a candidate, as the odds were clearly against him and they did not want to waste taxpayers' money.[16]

The Greens – The Green Alternative

It was expected that former Green Party leader Alexander Van der Bellen might stand in the election, but he stated in January 2009 that if Fischer ran for reelection he would have his support.[17] In June 2009, however, Green party leader Eva Glawischnig stated that the Greens were considering fielding a candidate, and that Van der Bellen would be a very good candidate.[18] By November 2009, there was still no clear decision from the Greens, even though Van der Bellen had ruled out a run for the presidency on 23 November 2009.[19][20] On 25 February 2010, the Greens announced they wanted to concentrate on state elections and would not nominate a candidate.[21] After Fischer appeared at an event where the Greens questioned him on a number of issues, with questions submitted by voters via the internet, the Greens on 12 April 2010 officially endorsed his candidacy and called for their voters to vote for him, a first in the party's history.[22]

Christian Party of Austria

The Christian Party nominated its chairman Rudolf Gehring as a presidential candidate.[23] On 25 March 2010, they announced they had gathered the necessary number signatures to run for president.[24]

Other candidates

A former judge from eastern Styria, Martin Wabl, who had twice previously tried to run for president, announced on 6 February 2009 that he would run again.[25] Green municipal councillor Ulrich Habsburg-Lothringen, as a descendant of the former ruling house of Austria-Hungary incapacitated by constitutional law to run for Austria's presidency, stated that he wanted to test the law at Austria's constitutional court if his candidacy is not permitted. Bernhard Gregor Honemann (nominated by the platform agenda2020.at) also planned to run.[26] None of these candidates obtained the 6000 signatures necessary to run for president. The signatures submitted were:[27]

  • Fischer: 45,000 signatures
  • Rosenkranz: 10,500 signatures
  • Gehring: 8,000 signatures

Voter statistics

According to the federal election commission, 6,355,800 Austrian citizens aged 16+ were eligible to vote in the presidential election. Compared with the 2004 presidential election, the number of eligible voters increased by 324,818, or 5.4% – primarily due to lowering the legal voting age to 16 between the two elections. 3,307,366 women and 3,048,434 men were eligible to vote.[28]

Total number of eligible voters by state:

  • Burgenland: 231,257
  • Carinthia: 447,679
  • Lower Austria: 1,267,379
  • Upper Austria: 1,092,760
  • Salzburg: 391,142
  • Styria: 973,009
  • Tyrol: 530,265
  • Vorarlberg: 265,026
  • Vienna: 1,157,283

Opinion polls

Social Democrats v. Freedom Party v. Christian Party

Source Date Social Democrats Freedom Party Christian Party Undecided
Karmasin/Profil 17 April 2010 Heinz Fischer – 82% Barbara Rosenkranz – 13% Rudolf Gehring – 5% —
Market/Standard 16 April 2010 Heinz Fischer – 60% Barbara Rosenkranz – 15% Rudolf Gehring – 4% 21%
Gallup/Österreich 16 April 2010 Heinz Fischer – 80% Barbara Rosenkranz – 16% Rudolf Gehring – 4% —
Gallup/Österreich 9 April 2010 Heinz Fischer – 82% Barbara Rosenkranz – 14% Rudolf Gehring – 4% —
Karmasin/Profil 9 April 2010 Heinz Fischer – 82% Barbara Rosenkranz – 12% Rudolf Gehring – 6% —
Market/Standard 1 April 2010 Heinz Fischer – 71% Barbara Rosenkranz – 13% Rudolf Gehring – 2% 14%

Social Democrats v. Freedom Party

Source Date Social Democrats Freedom Party Undecided
Peter Hajek/ATV 31 March 2010 Heinz Fischer – 80% Barbara Rosenkranz – 13% 7%
Gallup/Österreich 27 March 2010 Heinz Fischer – 86% Barbara Rosenkranz – 14% —
OGM/News 17 March 2010 Heinz Fischer – 81% Barbara Rosenkranz – 19% —
Gallup/Österreich 12 March 2010 Heinz Fischer – 84% Barbara Rosenkranz – 16% —
Market/Standard 5 March 2010 Heinz Fischer – 65% Barbara Rosenkranz – 17% 18%
OGM/News 3 March 2010 Heinz Fischer – 74% Barbara Rosenkranz – 26% —
Gallup/Österreich 27 February 2010 Heinz Fischer – 79% Barbara Rosenkranz – 21% —
Gallup/Österreich 27 February 2010 Heinz Fischer – 84% Heinz-Christian Strache – 16% —

Social Democrats v. People's Party

Source Date Social Democrats People's Party Undecided
IMAS/Kronen Zeitung 28 June 2009 Heinz Fischer – 62% Erwin Pröll – 20% 18%
Gallup/Österreich 27 June 2009 Heinz Fischer – 62% Erwin Pröll – 25% 13%
OGM/News 25 June 2009 Heinz Fischer – 53% Erwin Pröll – 30% 17%
Market/Standard 25 June 2009 Heinz Fischer – 54% Erwin Pröll – 30% 16%
Gallup/Österreich 4 April 2009 Heinz Fischer – 67% Erwin Pröll – 18% 15%

All parties

Source Date Social Democrats People's Party Freedom Party Greens Alliance Undecided
Gallup/Österreich 9 August 2009 Heinz Fischer – 50% Erwin Pröll – 24% Martin Graf – 3% Alexander Van der Bellen – 8% Claudia Haider – 4% 11%
Gallup/Österreich 27 June 2009 Heinz Fischer – 51% Erwin Pröll – 17% Heinz-Christian Strache – 8% Alexander Van der Bellen – 9% Claudia Haider – 5% 10%

Results

Heinz Fischer beat Barbara Rosenkranz by scoring 79.3% of the vote.[29] Rosenkranz received 15.2%.[29] Rudolf Gehring came third by scoring 5.4%.[29]

Opinion polls had placed Fischer in a good position on the day of the election.[30]

Fischer thanked the nation on television: "I am extremely happy and thank the Austrian population for having so much confidence in me".[31]

Poor voter turnout – only 53.6% voted[29] – led again to calls by leaders for the post to be abolished.[32]

CandidatePartyVotes%
Heinz FischerIndependent (SPÖ)2,508,37379.33
Barbara RosenkranzFreedom Party of Austria481,92315.24
Rudolf GehringChristian Party of Austria171,6685.43
Total3,161,964100.00
Valid votes3,161,96492.87
Invalid/blank votes242,6827.13
Total votes3,404,646100.00
Registered voters/turnout6,355,80053.57
Source: Federal Ministry for the Interior

By state

State Heinz Fischer Barbara Rosenkranz Rudolf Gehring Electorate Votes Valid votes Invalid votes
Burgenland 104,553 20,566 7,174 231,257 148,272 132,293 15,979
Lower Austria 534,583 116,520 35,762 1,267,379 759,052 686,865 72,187
Wien 415,747 71,124 16,973 1,157,283 534,408 503,844 30,564
Kärnten 140,806 39,890 11,211 447,679 207,876 191,907 15,969
Steiermark 315,038 64,359 23,681 973,009 430,126 403,078 27,048
Upper Austria 417,340 80,984 30,540 1,092,760 569,877 528,864 41,013
Salzburg 136,811 27,926 11,137 391,142 188,881 175,874 13,007
Tirol 152,359 24,429 11,646 530,265 196,079 188,434 7,645
Vorarlberg 70,771 7,078 9,383 265,026 90,830 87,232 3,598
Source: European Election Database Archived 24 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine

References

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  4. ^ Quinn, Kathryn (13 October 2009). "Pröll will not run for presidency". Wiener Zeitung. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
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  16. ^ "BZÖ schickt niemanden ins Rennen". Der Standard. 1 March 2010. Archived from the original on 8 May 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  17. ^ "Seite nicht gefunden". Ö1. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  18. ^ "Seite nicht gefunden". Ö1. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
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  22. ^ "Bundespräsidentschaft: Grüne empfehlen offiziell Wahl Fischers". The Greens – The Green Alternative. 12 April 2010. Archived from the original on 17 April 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  23. ^ "Christen-Partei stellt Kandidaten auf". Der Standard. 4 December 2009. Archived from the original on 10 February 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  24. ^ "Drei Kandidaten rittern um h chstes Amt im Staat > Kleine Zeitung". Archived from the original on 27 March 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  25. ^ "Martin Wabl will sich wieder bewerben". Der Standard. 6 February 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  26. ^ "Zuversicht für Unterstützungserklärungen". Der Standard. 1 March 2010. Archived from the original on 4 March 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  27. ^ ""Sehr schönes Ergebnis" für Heinz Fischer". Kurier. Archived from the original on 31 March 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  28. ^ "Bundespräsidentenwahl 2010 – endgültige Zahl der Wahlberechtigten" (in German). Federal Ministry of the Interior. Archived from the original on 28 April 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  29. ^ a b c d "Bundespräsidentenwahl 2010" (in German). Federal Ministry of the Interior. Archived from the original on 29 April 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
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  32. ^ Scally, Derek (26 April 2010). "Poor turnout gives Fischer hollow re-election victory". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 17 November 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2010.