Austrian People's Party Österreichische Volkspartei | |
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Abbreviation | ÖVP |
Chairperson | Karl Nehammer |
Secretary General | Christian Stocker |
Parliamentary leader | August Wöginger |
Founded | 17 April 1945 |
Headquarters | Lichtenfelsgasse 7, 1010 First District, Vienna |
Youth wing | Young People's Party |
Party academy | ÖVP Political Academy |
Membership (2017) | c. 600,000[1][needs update] |
Ideology | |
Political position | Centre-right[2] to right-wing[3] |
European affiliation | European People's Party |
European Parliament group | European People's Party |
International affiliation | International Democracy Union |
Colours | |
National Council | 71 / 183 |
Federal Council | 26 / 61 |
Governorships | 6 / 9 |
State cabinets | 6 / 9 |
State diets | 146 / 440 |
European Parliament | 5 / 19 |
Party flag | |
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Website | |
dievolkspartei | |
The Austrian People's Party (German: Österreichische Volkspartei [ˈøːstəraɪçɪʃə fɔlksparˈtaɪ], ÖVP [øːfaʊˈpeː]) is a populist,[4] Christian-democratic[5][6][7][8] and liberal-conservative[9] political party in Austria.
Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currently the largest party in the National Council, with 71 of the 183 seats, and won 37.5% of votes cast in the 2019 legislative election. It holds seats in all nine state legislatures, and is part of government in seven, of which it leads six. The ÖVP is a member of the International Democracy Union and the European People's Party. It sits with the EPP group in the European Parliament; of Austria's 19 MEPs, 5 are members of the ÖVP. It is the second largest party in Europe by membership.
An unofficial successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ÖVP was founded immediately following the re-establishment of the Republic of Austria in 1945. Since then, it has been one of the two traditional major parties in Austria, alongside the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). It was the most popular party until 1970, and has traditionally governed in a grand coalition with the SPÖ. It was the senior partner in grand coalitions from 1945 to 1966 and the junior partner from 1986 to 2000 and 2007–2017. The ÖVP also briefly governed alone from 1966 to 1970. After the 1999 election, the party formed a coalition with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) until 2003, when a coalition with the FPÖ splinter Alliance for the Future of Austria was formed, which lasted until 2007.
The party underwent a change in its image after Sebastian Kurz became chairman, changing its colour from the traditional black to turquoise, and adopting the alternate name The New People's Party (German: Die neue Volkspartei).[10] It became the largest party after the 2017 election, and formed a coalition government with the FPÖ.[11] This collapsed eighteen months later, leading to the 2019 election, after which the ÖVP formed a new coalition with The Greens.[12]
But on January 7th Mr Kogler, who led the party to a string of electoral successes last year, and three of his comrades were sworn in to government as junior partners to the right-wing Austrian People's Party (ÖVP).
His rightwing Austrian People's Party posted a projected 37 per cent in Sunday's general election, as both the Social Democratic Party and the far-right Freedom Party — Mr Kurz's allies in the government that collapsed in May — fell back.
The law was tabled by the coalition government, made up of PM Sebastian Kurz' right-wing Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
That crisis—which saw the collapse of the coalition between the rightwing Austrian People's Party (OVP) and the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO)—stemmed from a controversial incident now known as the "Ibiza scandal".
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