The “Popular petition for more meritocracy and justice – against party cronyism and privilege” (abbreviated as the “Anti-privilege popular petition”) was launched by the FPÖ in 1987 and succeeded in obtaining 250,697 signatures. It ranks 26^th of the 50 popular petitions conducted up to 2020.

Jörg Haider had taken over the FPÖ in 1986, with the aim of changing the Austrian Republic. One of his central targets was the system of red-black “Proporz” (i.e. SPÖ-ÖVP distribution of posts and resources), which had shaped Austria for decades.

The Freedom Party raised the issues of party cronyism and privilege in the National Council and in its election campaigns. In 1987, it launched the first Freedom Party petition, which was directed "against party cronyism and privilege" and called for "more meritocracy and justice".  

The popular petition mainly comprised the following five demands:

• elimination of unjustified privilege;
• denationalisation measures, as well as establishing equality between state and private entrepreneurial activity;
• voluntary membership of Austria’s corporatist chambers;
• objective allocation of jobs and apartments;
• extension of the competences of the Ombudsman Board.

The popular petition received some 250,000 signatures, so from the viewpoint of the FPÖ, it was a great success and in terms of content, it was also the basis for the ongoing struggle against red-black proportionality, as well as for further FPÖ electoral success in future years.

You can find the original German-language text here (wenn ein Link kommt, ansonsten braucht man ein anderes Wort, wie zum Beispiel below)