Europawahl 2014
At the European Parliament election of 25 May 2014, Harald Vilimsky stood as the FPÖ’s lead candidate. The Freedom Party achieved 19.72 per cent of the vote (+7.01 percentage points) and four seats (+2).
The ÖVP and SPÖ suffered clear losses, the Greens were able to make clear gains, and the NEOS entered the European Parliament for the first time.
Brief description of the election campaign
It was originally planned that the long-serving MEP, Andreas Mölzer, would contest the election as the FPÖ’s lead candidate, but because he described the EU as a “Negerkonglomerat” (“Negro conglomerate”), he was obliged to withdraw his candidacy before the election had even begun. The lead candidate role was therefore taken on by Harald Vilimsky, the candidate ranked second on the FPÖ list.
The FPÖ’s central message was the slogan “Österreich rechnet ab” (“Austria settles scores”). The posters depicted not only the EU lead candidate, but also FPÖ Federal Party Chairman Heinz-Christian Strache.
Parties | Votes | Vote share 2014 | ± | Seats 2014 | ± |
ÖVP | 761,896 | 27.0% | -3.0% | 5 | -1 |
SPÖ | 680,180 | 24.1% | +0.4% | 5 | ±0 |
FPÖ | 556,835 | 19.7% | +7.0% | 4 | +2 |
GRÜNE | 410,089 | 14.5% | +4.6% | 3 | +1 |
NEOS | 229,781 | 8.1% | n.a. | 1 | +1 |
EUSTOP | 77,897 | 2.8% | n.a. | - | - |
ANDERS | 60,451 | 2.1% | n.a. | - | - |
REKOS | 33,224 | 1.2% | n.a. | - | - |
BZÖ | 13,208 | 0.5% | -4.1% | - | -1 |
Election result and impact
These elections again strengthened the FPÖ, which was able to make a correspondingly greater contribution to the formation within the European Parliament of a parliamentary Group of patriotic parties. The Freedom Party’s partners were, among others, the Italian Lega Nord and the French National Front (since renamed Rassemblement Nationale). The FPÖ’s four European Parliament seats went to Harald Vilimsky, Franz Obermayr, Barbara Kappel and Georg Mayer.