The 2023 Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) leadership election was initially held between 24 April and 10 May 2023 among party members as an advisory survey, to elect a new chairperson. The non-binding vote was conducted by mail and online. Results were released on 22 May 2023 with Hans Peter Doskozil winning narrowly, Andreas Babler coming in second and Pamela Rendi-Wagner in third place.
Following the vote, an extraordinary party congress was then held in Linz on 3 June 2023, at which delegates elected Babler as the new chairperson with over 53% of the vote, after initially declaring incorrectly that Doskozil had won.
The incumbent SPÖ-chairwoman Pamela Rendi-Wagner, who has held the position since 2018, announced her resignation on 23 May 2023.
Overview
The leadership election became necessary after Hans Peter Doskozil, a migration hardliner from Eastern Austria, applied for the party chair after years of publicly cross-firing against current party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the first woman to lead the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) on a federal level. Until then, a colleague has never challenged an incumbent SPÖ chairperson.
For months, the Social Democrats were in second place behind the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in Austrian polls, although they were almost consistently in the lead in 2022, sometimes even topping 30%. By the end of March 2023, some polls showed that the SPÖ fell into third place, which has been attributed to the infighting in the preceding months.
The party member vote started the day after the 2023 Salzburg state election, in which the SPÖ received its worst election result ever. The SPÖ previously lost a significant share of votes in the 2023 Lower Austrian state election in January and in the 2023 Carinthian state election in March. With the leadership election, the party therefore hopes for a turnaround ahead of the next Austrian legislative election, to be held by Autumn 2024.
According to SPÖ party statutes, the vote results by party members will be non-binding to the delegates at the extraordinary party congress on 3 June. However, Rendi-Wagner and Doskozil have pledged to accept the results of the party member vote. Babler has not done so, instead calling for a runoff vote. He also indicated that he might run as a candidate at the extraordinary party congress on 3 June, even if he doesn't get the plurality in the member vote.
Candidates
On 22 March, the SPÖ announced that anyone with an active party membership by Friday, 24 March 2023, can be a candidate in the election. Potential candidates also had until midnight on 24 March to submit their candidacy.
As of 23 March, there were at least 7 publicly announced candidates.
But, following the announcement of Traiskirchen mayor Andreas Babler as a candidate, some candidates have withdrawn or were considering withdrawing their candidacy. Nikolaus Kowall, who, like Babler, represents the left-wing of the party, withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Babler instead.
On 25 March, the SPÖ announced that 73 people submitted their candidacy by the end of the deadline, among them 69 men and 4 women. The SPÖ checked the validity of their registrations and debated their ballot access in its final leadership committee meeting on 27 March.
On 11 April, the SPÖ announced that only 3 of the 73 submitted candidacies qualified for the ballot.
Official candidates on the ballot
(ranked by placement on the ballot)
Pamela Rendi-Wagner, current party leader
Hans Peter Doskozil, current governor of Burgenland
Andreas Babler, current mayor of Traiskirchen
There will also be a 4th option on the ballot: "None of the above-mentioned candidates."
Candidacy withdrawn
Nikolaus Kowall, current vice party leader of the SPÖ-Alsergrund (endorsed Andreas Babler)
Known candidacy disqualifications
Gerald Grosz, former far-right FPÖ politician and former party leader of the far-right Alliance for the Future of Austria and independent candidate in the 2022 Austrian presidential election. Disqualified by the SPÖ for being a troll.
Conduct
Rules of the election
Primary organizational questions about how the leadership election should be conducted were debated and announced in late March 2023 by the SPÖ's top party committees.