Austria: Presidential Elections in the Crisis Era

Abstract

Incumbent Austrian president Alexander Van der Bellen obtained re-election with a clear win in the early October 2022. He has been in the office since 2016. The whole presidential campaign was heavily influenced by the current pan-European crisis caused by the ongoing military operation in the Ukraine. Main political parties in Austria – People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei – ÖVP) and Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs – SPÖ) – did not field their own candidates, choosing to indirectly endorse Van der Bellen instead. His main opponent was a candidate from the Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs – FPÖ) W. Rozenkranz. Unlike previous presidential elections in 2016 the current campaign did not bring any major surprises and the result of re-election of the incumbent president was pretty much determined beforehand.

Keywords

• austria
• president
• elections
• political parties
• ukraine crisis
• sanctions