New Century, New Governments

Towards the end of the century the right wing FPÖ under Jörg Haider managed to become second in national elections, easing its way into a government coalition. On February 4 2000, the People´s Party together with the Freedom Party formed a coalition government. The decision of the People's Party to form a coalition with the right wing Freedom Party had been a highly controversial stance of its leader Wolfgang Schüssel.

All across Europe governments expressed their worried opinions of the new Austrian coalition, whose repercussions even affected the covers of American news magazines. After a break-up of the coalition in 2002 and newly held elections, the People's party again formed a coalition with the now very weak Freedom party. After internal problems the Freedom Party divided into the Freedom Party and the Bündnis Zukunft Österreich (Alliance for Austria's Future - BZÖ) with Jörg Haider being the leader of the newly formed party.

Although this new party had not been democratically legitimated by the people of Austria Wolfgang Schüssel and his People's Party continued their coalition with the BZÖ without new elections being held. This also led to a serious uprising within the parliament and the Austrian media.

During this coaltion another milestone in Autrian history was achieved: Since Austria had joined the European Monetary Union in 1999, it completed the conversion from the old Schilling to its new currency, the Euro, thus taking another major step towards a European Union without monetary, economic or financial borders.

The Recent Past

In 2006 the official legislative period ended and new elections were held in Austria, leading to a win of the Social Democrats under Alfred Gusenbauer, regaining strength in parliament. The redivision of political power thus led to a remake of the Large Coalition of the Social Democrats with the People's Party under Wilhem Molterer. However, the new coalition was meant to be ill-fated, as the two parties seldom agreed on topics.

After re-elections in 2008 a new Large Coalition was formed, bringing with it a change in leadership of the two parties SPÖ and ÖVP changed. The new Chancellor of Austria and leader of the SPÖ is now Werner Faymann, the former Minister for Infrastructure. Josef Pröll, former Minister of Agriculture, is now Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance as well as the leader of the ÖVP. With this change of leaders the two parties hope to reinstall trust in the Large Coalition, as the former Coalition was very unpopular.

Furthermore, Austria's rivalling right wing parties FPÖ and BZÖ were able to celebrate a considerable upswing in these elections. Although none of the two parties of the Large Coalition officially considered forming a government with either one of these parties, FPÖ and BZÖ now represent a strong fraction within the Austrian parliament and legislative system. Furthermore, Jörg Haider, a controversial right wing politician of the BZÖ, celebrated a remarkable comeback within the outcome of the elections. On October 11 2008, Jörg Haider died from injuries caused by a car accident.  

Facing the Finance Crisis
The global finance crisis

Source: Facts and Figures, Published by the Federal Press Service, 2008.