The ( party in
Austria . It is currently led by
Alexander Zach , and is a member of the
Liberal International organisation and the
European Liberal Democrat And Reform Party .
It was founded on
February 4 1993 , when liberals within the
FPÖ , including five members of the National Council (''
Nationalrat '', lower house of the parliament), seceded from the party. The five ''Nationalrat'' members were
Heide Schmidt ,
Klara Motter ,
Friedhelm Frischenschlager ,
Hans Helmut Moser , and
Thomas Barmüller . Heide Schmidt (who was 3rd president of the ''Nationalrat'' until 1994) became the party's first chairperson.
The reason for the split within the FPÖ was growing disagreements between the liberal wing and the nationalistic camp.
Jörg Haider launched a petition-drive against foreign immigrants in Austria (the so-called "''Österreich Zuerst Volksbegehren''"
First Referendum" ). This in turn was unacceptable to Heide Schmidt and her followers. The founders of the new party wanted a true, liberal party in the classic sense, which the FPÖ had ceased to be since the resignation of
Norbert Steger and the rise of Haider.
The ''Liberales Forum'' was the first party in the history of the Second Republic to achieve immediate seats in parliament without prior elections. After some initial confusion, the chairs of the house accepted the new formation as an official party, thereby granting access to public financial means of support. The FPÖ left the
Liberal International organisation and the Liberal Forum took over that membership in its place instead. The party managed to gain 11 seats in the
1994 parliamentary elections, and with 5,51% of all votes cast 10 seats in the
1995 elections.
However, following the resignation of Schmidt as chairperson and the elections in
1999 , the party's support has plummeted and it failed to gain any seats. In the elections of
October 3 1999 the party obtained 3,65% of all votes and therefore failed to overcome the 4% mandatory threshold in order to enter parliament. In the elections of
2002 it obtained 1% of the vote and got no seats. As a consequence it also lost votes in state elections and is only represented on the communal level. In Vienna it lost all seats on the district level in the elections of 2005.
According to its founding
Charter the Liberal Forum propagates
Political Liberalism and advocates a
Free Market oriented economy. Only if the economy and business fare well, are the foundations for
Social Welfare of the people provided. Furthermore the party wants
Environmental Protection and supports world
Peace .
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The chart below shows a timeline of the Liberal chairpersons and the
Chancellors Of Austria . The left bar shows all the chairpersons (''Bundessprecher'', abbreviated as "CP") of the Liberal party, and the right bar shows the corresponding make-up of the Austrian government at that time. The red (
SPÖ ) and black (
ÖVP ) colours correspond to which party led the federal government (''Bundesregierung'', abbreviated as "Govern."). The last names of the respective chancellors are shown, the Roman numeral stands for the
Cabinet s.
ImageSize = width:420 height:300
PlotArea = width:370 height:250 left:50 bottom:50
Legend = columns:3 left:50 top:25 columnwidth:50
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1993 till:2006
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:1993
# there is no automatic collision detection,
# so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap
Colors=
id:LiF value:yellow legend:LiF
id:SPÖ value:red legend:SPÖ
id:ÖVP value:gray(0.25) legend:ÖVP
Define = 25 # shift text to right side of bar
Define = -4 # adjust height
PlotData=
bar:CP color:red width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
from:1993 till:2000 shift:(,) color:LiF text: Heide Schmidt
from:2000 till:2000 shift:(,) color:LiF text: Christian Köck
from:2000 till:2001 shift:(,) color:LiF text: Friedhelm Frischenschlager
from:2001 till:end shift:(,) color:LiF text: Alexander Zach
bar:Govern. color:red width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:7
from:1993 till:1994 shift:(,) color:SPÖ text: Vranitzky III
from:1994 till:1996 shift:(,) color:SPÖ text:Vranitzky IV
from:1996 till:1997 shift:(,) color:SPÖ text:Vranitzky V
from:1997 till:2000 shift:(,) color:SPÖ text: Klima
from:2000 till:2003 shift:(,) color:ÖVP text: Schüssel I
from:2003 till:end shift:(,) color:ÖVP text:Schüssel II
On
June 7 2005 MEP Karin Resetarits left the party of
Hans-Peter Martin , following several disagreements with him. She
Crossed The Floor and has now taken her seat with the
Alliance Of Liberals And Democrats For Europe . However any connections between her and the Liberal Forum are not known.
