At the National Council election of 6 May 1979, Alexander Götz stood as the FPÖ’s lead candidate. The Freedom Party achieved 6.08 per cent of the vote (an increase of 0.65 percentage points) and obtained 11 National Council seats (an increase of 1).

The SPÖ was able to make small gains and so increased its absolute majority, while the ÖVP lost slightly.

The topic that had dominated the outgoing legislative period was whether to proceed with the construction of the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant, a question that was put to a referendum which decided in favour of closing the plant. Despite having announced that he would resign in the event of this result, Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky again stood for election.

For the first time, the Freedom Party candidate was no longer Friedrich Peter, but Alexander Götz, the mayor of Graz. He was now also FPÖ Chairman and ran under the slogan "Neuer Schwung für Österreich" (“New momentum for Austria“). Other FPÖ slogans were " Sehen, Denken, Wählen " (“See, think, vote”) and " Frei sein statt abhängig " (“Be free, not dependent”).

The following parties and electoral lists, among others, stood for election at the National Council election of 1979:

Sozialistische Partei Österreichs (SPÖ)
Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP)
Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ)
Kommunistische Partei Österreichs (KPÖ)
Christlich Soziale Arbeitsgemeinschaft

After this election, Bruno Kreisky was able to govern for another four years as Federal Chancellor of an SPÖ single-party government. In the ÖVP, Josef Taus resigned and was succeeded as Party Chairman by Alois Mock.