2021 Upper Austrian state election

The Upper Austrian constitution mandates that cabinet positions in the state government (state councillors, German: Landesräte) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. As such, the government is a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualify for at least one state councillor. Despite this, parties still establish formal coalitions to organise cabinet positions and ensure a Landtag majority for legislative purposes.

In the 2015 state election, the ÖVP and SPÖ suffered major losses to the FPÖ, which doubled its vote share to 30% and became the second largest party. The ÖVP, lacking a majority in the state council, subsequently signed a working agreement with the FPÖ.

Governor Josef Pühringer resigned in 2017 after 22 years in office. He was succeeded on 6 April by Deputy Governor and fellow ÖVP member Thomas Stelzer, who was elected by the Landtag with 51 of 55 votes.^[3]

The 56 seats of the Landtag of Upper Austria are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between five multi-member constituencies. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 4 percent state-wide electoral threshold. Seats are distributed in constituencies according to the Hare quota, with any remaining seats allocated using the D'Hondt method at the state level, to ensure overall proportionality between a party's vote share and its share of seats.^[4]

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag.

In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, seven parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.^[5][6]

• NEOS – The New Upper Austria (NEOS)
• MFG – Austria: People – Freedom – Fundamental Rights (MFG)
• Communist Party of Austria and Independent Left (KPÖ)
• Best Upper Austria – Honest, Transparent and Open Electoral Platform (BESTE)
• UBB Independent Citizens' Movement (UBB) – on the ballot only in Linz and Surrounds, Hausruckviertel, and Mühlviertel
• Christian Party of Austria (CPÖ) – on the ballot only in Hausruckviertel, Traunviertel, and Mühlviertel
• Referendum – on the ballot only in Linz and Surrounds and Hausruckviertel

Party		Candidate		Offices held
	ÖVP		Thomas Stelzer[1]	Governor of Upper Austria (since 2017)[7] Chairman of ÖVP Upper Austria (since 2017)[3]
	FPÖ		Manfred Haimbuchner[1]	Deputy Governor of Upper Austria (since 2015)[8]
	SPÖ		Birgit Gerstorfer[9]	Chairwoman of SPÖ Upper Austria (since 2016)[9] State Councillor of Upper Austria (since 2016)[10]
	GRÜNE		Stefan Kaineder[11]	Spokesman of The Greens Upper Austria (since 2019)[11] State Councillor of Upper Austria (since 2020)[12]