Despite this, parties still establish formal coalitions to organise cabinet positions and ensure a Landtag majority for legislative purposes.

In the 2009 state election, the ÖVP consolidated its lead over the SPÖ, which suffered a huge loss of 13.4 percentage points.

The 56 seats of the Landtag of Upper Austria are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process.

For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 4 percent state-wide electoral threshold.

This was ultimately successful, though Pühringer distanced himself from the FPÖ, describing the situation as a "working agreement" rather than a coalition, stating that both parties were given great freedom to operate independently.