Chamber:
	Nationalrat
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	17 December 1995
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held for all the seats in the National Council after its premature dissolution on 13 October 1995. Previous general elections had been held in October 1994.
Background and outcome of elections:
	General elections had previously been held in October 1994. In September 1995, the ruling coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) could not come to an agreement during negotiations over the 1996 national budget. While both groups had formally committed themselves to reducing the budget deficit by 10% annually, to the level needed for becoming part of the European monetary union, they differed on how to achieve this. The centre-left SPÖ, led by Federal Chancellor (since 1986) Franz Vranitzky, proposed to raise taxes, increase revenue by further privatisation, and reduce subsidies to farms and small businesses. For its part, the conservative ÖVP, headed (since April 1995) by Mr. Wolfgang Schüssel, criticised the heavy reliance on taxes and advocated an austerity programme which primarily sought to diminish Austria's generous social welfare provisions. In this context, the "grand coalition" in power since 1987 collapsed on 12 October when the ÖVP withdrew, making it the shortest-lived post-war Government. The next day, Parliament was dissolved and polling called for December. Predictably, economic issues dominated the campaign debate, thus overshadowing foreign policy questions and those relating to the country's foreign population, as opposed to other recent polls. This focus did little to help the third-place Freedom Party (FPÖ) and its leader Jörg Haider, who had gained steadily on his main rivals since 1986 on a right-wing xenophobist, anti-corruption and anti-establishment platform. In response, Chancellor Vranitzky, invoking the slogan "our Austria is too precious for experiments", warned of danger in a possible ÖVP-FPÖ coalition government. Mr. Schüssel, for his part, saw the SPÖ-ÖVP dispute as one "reflecting a fundamental battle over the direction of the country". On a polling day marked by an impressive turnout, the outcome bore out the electorate's overriding desire for political stability, as the SPÖ made clear gains in votes and seats at the expense of the FPÖ and especially of the smaller Greens. After several months of negotiations, the SPÖ and ÖVP agreed, on 7 March 1996, to carry on with their coalition Government. Mr. Vranitzky remained Chancellor and his coalition Cabinet was sworn in on 12 March 1996.

STATISTICS

Round no 1 (17 December 1995): Elections results
Number of registered electors	5,768,099
Voters	4,959,539 (85.98%)

Round no 1: Distribution of votes
Political Group	Candidates	Votes	%
Social Democratic Party (SPÖ)	183	1,899,966	38.8
People’s Party (ÖVP)	183	1,421,660	29.0
Freedom Party (FPÖ)	183	1,090,661	21.9
Liberal Forum	183	287,827	5.5
Greens	183	253,913	4.9

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total	Gain/Loss
Social Democratic Party (SPÖ)	71	+6
People’s Party (ÖVP)	53	+1
Freedom Party (FPÖ)	40	-2
Liberal Forum	10	-1
Greens	9	-4

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	134
Women:	49

Distribution of seats according to age:
Under 30 years	2
31 - 40 years	29
41 - 50 years	72
51 - 60 years	72
Over 60 years	8
Distribution of seats according to profession:
Public civil service	67
Commerce & traffic	31
Employees of social security institutions, trade unions, political parties	27
Industry & trade	20
Liberal professions	18
Farming & forestry	17
Householders	3