European Parliament election 1996
At Austria’s first European Parliament election of 13 October 1996, Franz Linser was the FPÖ’s lead candidate. The Freedom Party achieved 27.53 per cent of the vote and six seats.
The ÖVP became the strongest party, closely followed by the SPÖ and FPÖ. The Greens and the Liberal Forum were each able to obtain one seat in the European Parliament.
Brief description of the election campaign
Austria joined the EU in 1995, the year after the regular European Parliament elections of 1994, so in autumn 1996, it held an extraordinary European Parliament election. The Freedom Party nominated Franz Linser, then Chairman of the FPÖ’s provincial party group, as its lead candidate. He was followed on the party list by Peter Sichrovsky and Daniela Raschhofer, who was later to become the party’s lead candidate
Parties | Votes | Vote share 1996 | Seats 1996 |
ÖVP | 1,124,921 | 29.65% | 7 |
SPÖ | 1,105,910 | 29.15% | 6 |
FPÖ | 1,044,604 | 27.53% | 6 |
GRÜNE | 258,250 | 6.81% | 1 |
LIF | 161,583 | 4.26% | 1 |
Election result and impact
At the European Parliament election of 1996, the Freedom Party recorded what remains (in autumn 2020) its historically best-ever percentage result. The Austrian MEPs delegated to the European Parliament via the Freedom Party were Franz Linser, Peter Sichrovsky, Daniela Raschhofer, Klaus Lukas, Gerhard Hager and Hans Kronberger.