Rakouské parlamentní volby 1970 a Československo
Austrian Parliamentary Elections and Czechoslovakia in 1970

Summary/Abstract: The Czechoslovak view of the Austrian parliamentary elections of 1970 was to a substantial extent determined by an ideological template. Prague observed with discontent the strong position of Austrian social democracy and the Christian-Democratic People’s Party (KPÖ). It had high hopes that the local Communist party would have a greater influence on Austria’s internal politics. The Austrian public perceived KPÖ with strong distrust as an extended body of the Soviet Union. Czechoslovak officials did not expect the March parliamentary elections to bring any substantial shift. It was assumed that KPÖ would fail, and the elections therefore received little attention from the media. Contemporary Czechoslovak newspapers informed about the events from Austria only sporadically and briefly. As with many other occasions in history, they did not hesitate to interpret some facts without the necessary context or distort them entirely by claiming, for example, that social democracy owed its success to taking up topics that had long been put forward by KPÖ. Unlike the media, the Czechoslovak ambassador in Vienna Karel Komárek attempted to elaborate a matter-of-fact analysis of the post-election situation. He informed the Prague Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the causes of the victory of the Social-Democratic party, the unexpected failure of coalition negotiations involving SPÖ and ÖVP, and the establishment of the first minority government in the history of Austria.

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