Dr Kurt Steyrer (SPÖ, pictured here on the left), Dr Kurt Waldheim, officially independent but supported by the ÖVP (right), Freda Meissner-Blau from the Greens and Otto Scrinzi from the National Freiheitliche Aktion ran for the presidential election on 4 May 1986. The election campaign was accompanied by fierce protests and disputes over the alleged involvement of the ÖVP candidate Waldheim in Nazi war crimes. As none of the candidates were able to achieve the required majority in the first round of voting, a run-off election was held on 8 June 1986, which Waldheim won with 53.9% votes against Steyrer with 46.1%. As a result, the involvement of Austrians in Nazi crimes during the National Socialist era was openly discussed for the first time and the state's victim thesis, according to which Austria had been „Adolf Hitler's first victim“ in 1938, was abandoned. The controversy surrounding Waldheim's wartime past continued until the end of his term of office in 1992.
Postcard, 10x14cm, signature EL2/3: BP elections 1986