Editing Austrian People's Party (section)

== History ==
The ÖVP is the successor of the [[Christian Social Party (Austria)|Christian Social Party]], a staunchly conservative movement founded in 1893 by [[Karl Lueger]], mayor of [[Vienna]] and highly controversial [[Right-wing populism|right-wing populist]]. Most of the members of the party during its founding belonged to the former [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Fatherland Front]], which was led by chancellor [[Engelbert Dollfuss]], also a member of the Christian Social Party before the [[Anschluss]]. While still sometimes honored by ÖVP members for resisting [[Adolf Hitler]], the regime built by Dollfuss was authoritarian in nature and has been dubbed as [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Austrofascism]]. In its present form, the ÖVP was established immediately after the restoration of Austria's independence in 1945 and it has been represented in both the [[Federal Assembly (Austria)|Federal Assembly]] ever since. In terms of Federal Assembly seats, the ÖVP has consistently been the strongest or second-strongest party and as such it has led or at least been a partner in most Austria's federal cabinets.
[[File:Mitgliederzahl parteien Österreichs - Party membership of parties in Austria.png|left|thumb|Party membership of ÖVP (in turquoise), since 1945.]]
In the [[1945 Austrian legislative election]], the ÖVP won a [[landslide victory]] in Austria's first postwar election, winning almost half the popular vote and an absolute majority in the legislature. However, memories of the hyper-partisanship that had plagued the First Republic prompted the ÖVP to maintain the [[grand coalition]] with the [[Communist Party of Austria]] (KPÖ) and the [[Social Democratic Party of Austria]] (SPÖ) that had governed the country since the restoration of independence in early 1945. The ÖVP remained the senior partner in a coalition with the SPÖ until 1966 and governed alone from 1966 to 1970. It reentered the government in 1986, but has never been completely out of power since the restoration of Austrian independence in 1945 due to a longstanding tradition that all major interest groups were to be consulted on policy.

After the [[1999 Austrian legislative election]], several months of negotiations ended in early 2000 when the ÖVP formed a [[coalition government]] with the right-wing populist [[Freedom Party of Austria]] (FPÖ) led by [[Jörg Haider]]. The FPÖ had won just a few hundred more votes than the ÖVP, but was considered far too controversial to lead a government. The ÖVP's [[Wolfgang Schüssel]] became [[Chancellor of Austria|Chancellor]]—the first ÖVP Chancellor of Austria since 1970. This caused widespread outrage in Europe and the [[European Union]] imposed informal diplomatic sanctions on Austria, the first time that it imposed sanctions on a member state. Bilateral relations were frozen (including contacts and meetings at an inter-governmental level) and Austrian candidates would not be supported for posts in European Union international offices.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/haid-f22.shtml|title=The European Union's sanctions against Austria|publisher=WSWS|date=22 February 2000|access-date=4 September 2012}}</ref> Austria threatened to veto all applications by countries for European Union membership until the sanctions were lifted.<ref>{{cite news|first=Donald G.|last=McNeill|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/04/world/a-threat-by-austria-on-sanctions.html|title=A Threat By Austria on Sanctions|work=The New York Times|date=4 July 2000|access-date=4 September 2012}}</ref> A few months later, these sanctions were dropped as a result of a fact-finding mission by three former European prime ministers, the so-called "three wise men". The [[2002 Austrian legislative election|2002 legislative election]] resulted in a landslide victory (42.27% of the vote) for the ÖVP under Schüssel. Haider's FPÖ was reduced to 10.16% of the vote. At the [[Federal states of Austria|state level]], the ÖVP has long dominated the rural states of [[Lower Austria]], [[Upper Austria]], [[Salzburg (federal state)|Salzburg]], [[Styria]], [[Tyrol (federal state)|Tyrol]] and [[Vorarlberg]]. It is less popular in the [[city-state]] of [[Vienna]] and in the rural, but less strongly Catholic states of [[Burgenland]] and [[Carinthia]]. In 2004, it lost its [[Plurality (parliamentary procedure)|plurality]] in the [[Salzburg (federal state)|State of Salzburg]], where they kept its result in seats (14) in 2009. In 2005, it lost its plurality in [[Styria]] for the first time.

After the [[Alliance for the Future of Austria]] (BZÖ) split from the FPÖ in 2005, the BZÖ replaced the FPÖ in the government coalition which lasted until 2007. Austria for the first time had a government containing a party that was founded during the parliamentary term. In the [[2006 Austrian legislative election]], the ÖVP were defeated and after much negotiations agreed to become junior partner in a grand coalition with the SPÖ, with new party chairman [[Wilhelm Molterer]] as [[Ministry of Finance (Austria)|Finance Minister]] and [[Vice-Chancellor of Austria|Vice-Chancellor]] under SPÖ leader [[Alfred Gusenbauer]], who became Chancellor. The [[2008 Austrian legislative election]] saw the ÖVP lose 15 seats, with a further 8.35% decrease in its share of the vote. However, the ÖVP won the largest share of the vote (30.0%) in the [[2009 European Parliament election in Austria|2009 European Parliament election]] with 846,709 votes, although their number of seats remained the same.

The ÖVP had minor losses in the [[2013 Austrian legislative election]], and the grand coalition with the SPÖ continued until the [[2017 Austrian legislative election]], when the ÖVP changed its colour to turquoise and won its first legislative election since 2002. The party underwent a change in its image after [[Sebastian Kurz]] became chairman, changing its colour from the traditional black to turquoise, and adopting the alternate name '''The New People's Party''' ({{langx|de|Die neue Volkspartei}}).<ref name="Our History">{{cite web |title=Our History |url=https://www.dieneuevolkspartei.at/Die-Geschichte |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929171903/https://www.dieneuevolkspartei.at/Die-Geschichte |archive-date=29 September 2019 |access-date=9 September 2020 |publisher=Austrian People's Party}}</ref> It became the largest party after the [[2017 Austrian legislative election|2017 election]], and formed a [[First Kurz government|coalition government]] with the FPÖ.<ref>{{cite web |date=16 October 2017 |title=Austria election results: Far-right set to enter government as conservatives top poll |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/austria-election-exit-poll-result-sebastian-kurz-ovp-latest-projection-freedom-far-right-a8001811.html |access-date=17 October 2018 |work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref> This collapsed eighteen months later due to the [[Ibiza affair]], leading to the [[2019 Austrian legislative election|2019 election]], after which the ÖVP formed a [[Second Kurz government|new coalition]] with [[The Greens – The Green Alternative|The Greens]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=red |first=ORF at |date=2020-01-01 |title=Neue Regierung: Kurz und Kogler präsentierten Einigung |url=https://orf.at/stories/3149364/ |access-date=2020-01-01 |website=news.ORF.at |language=de}}</ref>

An investigation into the Ibiza affair by a parliamentary subcommittee, an unstable Cabinet plagued by resignations, and ultimately [[Kurz corruption probe|a corruption inquiry]], forced Kurz to resign the chancellorship in October 2021. Kurz was replaced by [[Karl Nehammer]] in 2021 as party leader and Chancellor. In the [[2024 Austrian legislative election|2024 legislative election]], the party fell to second behind the FPÖ. Following the surge of the FPÖ in various polls throughout late 2024 and early 2025, as well as the collapse of the ÖVP-SPÖ-NEOS coalition talks, Nehammer resigned as party leader and was replaced with [[Christian Stocker]] as acting leader.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-04 |title=Austrian Chancellor Nehammer says he will resign after talks on forming a new government fail |url=https://apnews.com/article/austria-politics-talks-collapse-2e4ce6802617c2ac7a6d28f4842df38e |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=[[AP News]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-05 |title=Austrian People's Party nominates Christian Stocker as interim leader after Nehammer resigns |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/austrian-people-s-party-nominates-christian-stocker-as-interim-leader-after-nehammer-resigns-/7924879.html |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=[[Voice of America]] |language=en}}</ref> After failed talks with the FPÖ, the party would eventually form a coalition with the SPÖ and NEOS, with Stocker as Chancellor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Three-party Austria government takes office, ending months of deadlock |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/3/christian-stocker-becomes-austria-chancellor-as-three-party-govt-sworn-in |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=[[Al Jazeera]] |language=en}}</ref>