If the so-called “inclusion decision” does not come about in the state parliament, the VP can fill five of the nine government posts. As in 2015, this would again be at the expense of the SP. Even then, the latter had sharply criticized the fact that the governor was not included in the allocation of government posts, as was customary before. The Upper Austrian provincial constitutional law allows both variants for the government to be filled according to proportional representation: “The provincial governor can be included on the list of his party,” it says. The inclusion is only required if the governor’s party also has the absolute in the state parliament.
This is not the case – and thus either all nine items (including these) or only eight can be distributed according to the d’Hondt model. With the inclusion decision, the VP would get four, FP and SP each to two and the Greens to one government post. Without an inclusion decision (if eight positions were awarded), the SP would only be entitled to one state councilor – and the VP to four in the case of the allocation according to d’Hondt. But in this case the VP-Governor, who is not included in the calculation, would be added.
The People’s Party would then have five government representatives – and could take all government decisions without the consent of all other parties. Because the state constitution also stipulates that the state government decides with a majority of votes.
The Greens have a regional councilor even without a decision to include them, and the FP have two government posts – even though the FP (19.77 percent) and SP (18.58 percent) are very close to each other and both have eleven seats. The calculation according to d’Hondt is initially based on the mandate. If the two parties are equal, however, the votes will be used. And there the SP (with the allocation of eight posts) is missing only a few on the second government post. If she had a little more than 900 votes more, she would be entitled to the second regional councilor and the VP would only get three (plus the governor).
