Communist Party of Austria
Also known as Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, KPÖ, CPA
communist political party based in Austria
Key facts
- Abbreviation
- KPÖ
- Leader
- Günther Hopfgartner (statutory chairman) , Tobias Schweiger (spokesperson)
- General secretary
- Sarah Pansy (organisational secretary)
- Founded
- 3 November 1918
- Headquarters
- Drechslergasse 42 A-1140 Vienna
- Newspaper
- Argument Volksstimme (1945–1991)
- Student wing
- Communist Student Association
- Youth wing
- Young Left , Communist Youth of Austria
- Membership 2021
- c. 2,000
- Ideology
- Communism Socialism Marxism
- Political position
- Far-left
- National affiliation
- KPÖ Plus
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Article
The Communist Party of Austria (German: Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, KPÖ) is a communist party in Austria. Established in 1918 as the Communist Party of German-Austria (KPDÖ), it is one of the world's oldest communist parties. The KPÖ was banned between 1933 and 1945 under both the Austrofascist regime and the Nazi German administration of Austria after the 1938 Anschluss.
The party currently holds two seats in the Styrian and four seats in the Salzburg Landtag (state parliament), but has not had representation in the National Council (Nationalrat, Austria's federal parliament) since 1959. In the legislative election held on 29 September 2019, it won only 0.7% of the votes (32,736 out of a total of 4,835,469), well below the 4% minimum to obtain seats in the National Council. The party's vote share increased markedly to 2.4% in 2024, although still falling below the threshold. At the local level, the KPÖ has held the mayorship of Graz, Austria's second largest city, since 2021, and holds over 130 seats on district and municipal councils across the country.