Seven parties are on the ballot paper in the EU elections in June: the National Council parties ÖVP, SPÖ, FPÖ, Greens and Neos, which already have at least one member of the EU Parliament, as well as the KPÖ and the List DNA, each of which has more than have collected the required 2,600 declarations of support.
The deadline for parties to submit their election proposals to the Federal Elections Authority ended on Friday at 5 p.m.
The hurdle of collecting signatures for the EU elections is in principle the same as for National Council elections. But the EU candidacy is more difficult for small parties: the whole of Austria is a single constituency in which 2,600 signatures have to be collected. In National Council elections, a party with correspondingly fewer signatures can only run in individual federal states.
KP top candidate: “Great reception”
KP top candidate Günther Hopfgartner, a full-time innkeeper, was pleased regarding the great “reception” in a broadcast on Friday.
The DNA (Democratic, Neutral, Authentic) list has also cleared the hurdle. The Graz doctor Maria Hubmer-Mogg, who became known as an activist once morest the corona measures, had already announced in February that she wanted to run with this list. Among other things, there are demands for an independent investigation into corona policy, a rejection of the WHO’s planned pandemic treaty and an end to the Russia sanctions.
Too few declarations of support
The Volt Europa list, the “Öxit EU exit for Austria” alliance or the “EU Exit Party” did not receive the required number of declarations of support.
So far, only 18 parties have made it onto the ballot papers in the six EU elections that have taken place in Austria.
Eight of them won mandates: ÖVP, SPÖ, FPÖ and Greens have sat in the EU Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg since 1996. The Neos joined in 2014. The LIF was there from 1996 to 1999, Hans-Peter Martin’s list from 2004 to 2014 – and the BZÖ from 2011 (with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty) to 2014. The EU Parliament has 705 members, 19 of whom come from Austria.
