Austrian federal election, 2003 (Cinco De Mayo)

The Austrian federal election of 2003 was held on Saturday, October 4, and is to date the last federal election to occur prior the the Fixed Terms and Elections Act of 2004, and thus the last election date chosen at the advice of the Chancellor. Called by the majority SPÖ to avoid coming only three months after provincial elections like in 2000 and to head off the momentous gains in the polls by the VA, the plan backfired as during the two-month campaign the VA nearly doubled their polling, breaking 50% consistently through the month of September. The VA, led by former Olympic bodybuilder and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, defeated Franz Vranitzky's SPÖ in a landslide, winning 73 seats and earning 49.7% of the vote in the to-date largest landslide victory in Austrian history and largest margin of victory since the 1947 SPÖ watershed win. The VA wound up with 137 seats, their largest Parliamentary majority in party history since it was founded in 1979, which would only be topped by their majority four years later.