# 2022 Tyrolean state election

The 2022 Tyrolean state election was held on 25 September 2022 to elect the members of the Landtag of Tyrol. Incumbent Governor Günther Platter of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) retired at the election; Anton Mattle was the party's lead candidate.
The ÖVP suffered its worst-ever result in the state, winning less than 35% of votes, but remained well ahead of the other parties and performed substantially better than most opinion polling had predicted. The Greens also recorded a decline, while all opposition parties grew in support. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) overtook the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) as the second-largest party for the first time, though they remained tied on seven seats each. Citizens' Forum Tyrol improved to 10%, though this was below expectations. NEOS retained its two seats with a small positive swing. Overall, the ÖVP lost three seats and the Greens one, leaving the incumbent coalition without a majority. ÖVP leader Anton Mattle ruled out a coalition with the FPÖ. All parties indicated they were open to government negotiations. Ultimately, ÖVP and SPÖ formed a coalition government.

## Background

In the 2018 election, the ÖVP remained the largest party with 44.3% of votes and formed a coalition with the Greens. After Governor Günther Platter announced his retirement from politics in June 2022, the government agreed to hold early elections in September.

## Electoral system

The 36 seats of the Landtag of Tyrol are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between nine multi-member constituencies, corresponding to the districts of Tyrol. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 5 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.

## Contesting parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag.
| Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Leader | 2013 result | 2013 result |
| Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Leader | Votes (%) | Seats |
| | MATTLE | Austrian People's Party Anton Mattle Tyroler Volkspartei | Conservatism | Anton Mattle | 44.3% | 17 / 36 |
| | SPÖ | Social Democratic Party of Austria Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs | Social democracy | Georg Dornauer | 17.2% | 6 / 36 |
| | FPÖ | Freedom Party of Austria Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs | Right-wing populism Euroscepticism | Markus Abwerzger | 15.5% | 5 / 36 |
| | GRÜNE | The Greens – The Green Alternative Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative | Green politics | Gebi Mair & Petra Wohlfahrtstätter | 10.7% | 4 / 36 |
| | FRITZ | Citizens' Forum Tyrol Bürgerforum Tirol | Centrist Populism Regionalism | Andrea Haselwanter-Schneider | 5.5% | 2 / 36 |
| | NEOS | NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum NEOS – Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum | Liberalism Pro-Europeanism | Dominik Oberhofer | 5.2% | 2 / 36 |
In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, three parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.
* MFG Austria – People Freedom Fundamental Rights (MFG)
* Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) – on the ballot only in Innsbruck and Innsbruck-Land
* Join In – The List for All Others (MACH MIT) – on the ballot only in Innsbruck-Land

## Campaign

The Tyrol state election was the first major (regional) election after the resignation of former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the following ÖVP-Green government reshuffle at the national level, therefore being a test case for all major state elections that will follow in 2023 (Lower Austria, Carinthia and Salzburg). The election campaign was primarily impacted by the retirement of longtime governor Günther Platter and the questionable management of the state during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Ischgl and following events. More recently, the campaign was impacted by the rising prices in general and skyrocketing electricity prices in particular, as well as the general massive unpopularity of the Austrian federal ÖVP-Green government.

## Opinion polling

| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | ÖVP | SPÖ | FPÖ | Grüne | FRITZ | NEOS | MFG | Others | Lead |
| 2022 state election | 25 September 2022 | – | 34.7 | 17.5 | 18.8 | 9.2 | 9.9 | 6.3 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 15.9 |
| Market-Lazarsfeld | September 2022 | 573 | 27 | 21 | 21 | 8 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Market-Lazarsfeld | September 2022 | 645 | 26 | 20 | 19 | 8 | 15 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Market | 28 Jul–17 Aug 2022 | 600 | 26 | 21 | 18 | 9 | 14 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| GMK | 26–31 Aug 2022 | 600 | 37 | 16 | 17 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 4 | – | 4 |
| IMAD | 29 Aug–1 Sep 2022 | 600 | 25.3 | 17.8 | 16.6 | 12.4 | 11.5 | 11.7 | 2.4 | KPÖ 2.3 | 7.5 |
| Gallup | 8–20 Aug 2022 | 600 | 26 | 19 | 20 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
| Market-Lazarsfeld | August 2022 | 504 | 25 | 21 | 19 | 7 | 15 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| IFDD | 21–27 Jul 2022 | 800 | 29 | 21 | 17 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| IMAD | 22–25 Jul 2022 | 600 | 29.1 | 15.3 | 15.7 | 12.6 | 10.2 | 12.3 | 2.5 | KPÖ 2.3 | 13.4 |
| IMAD | 20–23 Jun 2022 | 600 | 30.1 | 15.2 | 16.6 | 12.5 | 9.6 | 11.5 | 2.4 | KPÖ 2.1 | 13.5 |
| IMAD | 27–29 Dec 2021 | 500 | 34.3 | 11.8 | 15.5 | 12.5 | 7.7 | 9.7 | 6.5 | 2.0 | 18.8 |
| GMK | 9–15 Dec 2021 | 400 | 39 | 9 | 18 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 21 |
| Gallup | Nov–Dec 2021 | 600 | 32 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 15 |
| Market | 4–22 Oct 2021 | 1,000 | 37 | 17 | 16 | 13 | 6 | 10 | – | 1 | 20 |
| Research Affairs | 2–14 Dec 2020 | 600 | 43 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 4 | 8 | – | 4 | 28 |
| GMK | 11–16 Dec 2020 | 400 | 52 | 9 | 10 | 15 | 4 | 8 | – | 2 | 37 |
| IMAD | 14–17 Dec 2020 | 500 | 42.7 | 11.2 | 14.9 | 13.1 | 8.3 | 9.4 | – | 0.4 | 27.8 |
| IMAD | 14–27 Sep 2020 | 501 | 43.0 | 11.7 | 14.3 | 13.3 | 8.6 | 9.1 | – | – | 28.7 |
| GMK | 2–11 Dec 2019 | 400 | 47 | 10 | 11 | 19 | 4 | 7 | – | 2 | 28 |
| Research Affairs | 3–17 Dec 2018 | 600 | 44 | 15 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 6 | – | 3 | 28 |
| GMK | December 2018 | ? | 45 | 15 | 17 | 12 | 4 | 6 | – | 1 | 28 |
| 2018 state election | 25 February 2018 | – | 44.3 | 17.2 | 15.5 | 10.7 | 5.5 | 5.2 | – | 1.6 | 27.1 |

## Results

| | Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) | 119,167 | 34.71 | –9.55 | 14 | –3 |
| | Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) | 64,683 | 18.84 | +3.31 | 7 | +2 |
| | Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) | 60,009 | 17.48 | +0.23 | 7 | +1 |
| | Citizens' Forum Tyrol (FRITZ) | 33,990 | 9.90 | +4.44 | 3 | +1 |
| | The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) | 31,598 | 9.20 | –1.47 | 3 | –1 |
| | NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS) | 21,589 | 6.29 | +1.08 | 2 | ±0 |
| | MFG Austria – People Freedom Fundamental Rights (MFG) | 9,539 | 2.78 | New | 0 | New |
| | Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) | 2,312 | 0.67 | New | 0 | New |
| | Join In – The List for All Others (MACH MIT) | 453 | 0.13 | New | 0 | New |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 4,577 | – | – | – | – |
| Total | Total | 347,917 | 100 | – | 36 | 0 |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 535,112 | 65.02 | +5.02 | – | – |
| Source: Tyrolean Government |||||||
Popular vote
ÖVP
34.71%
FPÖ
18.84%
SPÖ
17.48%
FRITZ
9.90%
GRÜNE
9.20%
NEOS
6.29%
MFG
2.78%
Other
0.80% :
Landtag seats
ÖVP
38.89%
FPÖ
19.44%
SPÖ
19.44%
FRITZ
8.33%
GRÜNE
8.33%
NEOS
5.56% :

### Results by constituency

| Constituency | ÖVP | ÖVP | FPÖ | FPÖ | SPÖ | SPÖ | FRITZ | FRITZ | Grüne | Grüne | NEOS | NEOS | Others | Total seats | Turnout |
| Constituency | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | Total seats | Turnout |
| Innsbruck City | 20.6 | | 17.5 | | 18.9 | | 12.5 | | 18.0 | | 7.8 | | 4.7 | | 62.4 |
| Imst | 38.6 | | 20.5 | | 17.0 | | 8.2 | | 6.3 | | 6.4 | | 3.0 | | 66.6 |
| Innsbruck-Land | 29.5 | | 17.8 | | 20.4 | | 11.7 | | 9.8 | | 6.9 | | 4.0 | | 68.3 |
| Kitzbühel | 41.6 | | 16.8 | | 14.9 | | 10.0 | | 7.3 | | 5.8 | | 3.7 | | 62.8 |
| Kufstein | 34.4 | | 22.1 | | 16.2 | | 9.0 | | 8.7 | | 6.3 | | 3.3 | | 62.4 |
| Landeck | 55.3 | | 13.5 | | 14.6 | | 5.1 | | 4.2 | | 4.5 | | 2.9 | | 69.9 |
| Lienz | 42.9 | | 18.6 | | 14.8 | | 9.0 | | 6.2 | | 4.9 | | 3.6 | | 62.3 |
| Reutte | 42.7 | | 19.5 | | 13.5 | | 8.2 | | 6.9 | | 6.2 | | 3.1 | | 64.2 |
| Schwaz | 37.4 | | 22.3 | | 17.6 | | 8.7 | | 6.3 | | 5.1 | | 2.5 | | 64.6 |
| Remaining seats | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Total | 34.7 | 14 | 18.8 | 7 | 17.5 | 7 | 9.9 | 3 | 9.2 | 3 | 6.3 | 2 | 3.6 | 36 | 65.0 |
| Source: Tyrolean Government ||||||||||||||||

## Aftermath

On 3 October, the ÖVP decided to start coalition talks with the SPÖ. The new ÖVP-SPÖ government was sworn into office on 25 October 2022.