This mandate is not laid down in the constitution, but is lived practice. The task of forming a government has usually taken place within ten days of the election; only twice has it taken longer. In 1999, Federal President Thomas Klestil waited 67 days before issuing the official order.
Just two outliers
If you look back at the National Council elections of the Second Republic, it took an average of 8.7 days from election day until the Federal President gave the order to form a government. With the exception of two outliers, it never took more than 10 days for the government to be officially formed. After the last National Council election five years ago, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen gave the election winner Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) the order to form a government eight days after the election. In the election two years earlier, he entrusted the same person after just five days.
After the National Council elections in 2006, 2008 and 2013, ten days passed from the election to the formal order. Things happened fastest in 1956, when Federal President Theodor Körner again commissioned the previous Chancellor Julius Raab to form a government just one day after the election. Things went similarly quickly after the elections in 2002, 1990, 1970 and 1962, when the order to form a government was issued two days after the election.
Tricky situation in 1999
The winner of the 1999 election had to wait the longest. Given the tricky situation – the FPÖ came second for the first time, the third-ranked ÖVP wanted to go into opposition, the SPÖ with the most votes ruled out a coalition with the Freedom Party – eleven days after the election, Federal President Thomas Klestil issued an order to the SPÖ Boss Viktor Klima initially only issued an “exploratory order”. Only after weeks of discussions with all parties, in which Klestil was also actively involved, did Klima receive a formal mandate to form a government almost ten weeks after the election.
After the coalition negotiations with the ÖVP failed, Klestil renewed the mandate to form a government to Klima, which now also extended to an SPÖ minority government. Meanwhile, ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel was already negotiating with the Freedom Party without a mandate to form a government. Ultimately, Klestil had no choice but to swear in the black-blue government 124 days after the election.
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It took a little longer to form a government in 1983. After the then Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky (SPÖ) resigned after the loss of the Absolute, 24 days passed from election day until Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger commissioned his successor as SPÖ chairman Fred Sinowatz to form a government. The result was the first red-blue cabinet.
Regardless of the duration, the mandate to form a government was always given to the leader of the party with the largest mandate in the newly elected National Council. With the exception of climate, the commissioners always managed to form a government. The year 1953 was special: at that time the order was initially given to the incumbent Chancellor Leopold Figl (ÖVP), but after he was replaced by Julius Raab from his own party, the ÖVP was given another order, but this time to Raab 20 days later of choice.
