The ÖVP took a strong lead in opinion polls after Kurz's confirmation as leader, and emerged as the largest party in the election, with 31.5% of the vote and 62 of the 183 seats in the National Council.

The Greens failed to pass the 4% electoral threshold and lost parliamentary representation for the first time since winning seats in the 1986 elections.

[2] Kurz was formally invited to form a government on 20 October, and began coalition talks with FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache four days later.

[7] On 14 June, the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) announced that it would drop a 30-year ban on coalitions with the far-right FPÖ under certain conditions.

[11] On 17 July long-time Green Party MP and founding member Peter Pilz decided to leave the parliamentary club.

[12] On 14 August the SPÖ ended their co-operation with Israeli election adviser Tal Silberstein [de] after he was arrested in Israel on suspicion of money-laundering and corruption.

For several years, Silberstein worked as an opinion poll and campaign strategy consultant on behalf of the Social Democratic Party.

[13] On 14 August popular Austrian comedian Roland Düringer announced that his satirical, anti-establishment list My Vote Counts!

[14] On 16 August the KPÖ+ election alliance between the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) and the Young Greens [de] announced that they collected more than 2600 signatures and will appear on the ballot in every state.

The negative Facebook campaigning websites were initiated by former, controversial SPÖ adviser Tal Silberstein who got fired by the party a month before.

[16] In the days following the revelations and a blame-game about the origins and responsibility in the affair, the ÖVP decided to sue the SPÖ and vice versa.

[18] The 183 members of the National Council are elected by open list proportional representation in nine multi-member constituencies based on the states (with varying in size from 7 to 36 seats) and 39 sub-constituencies.

After a period of objection, the number of eligible voters was finalized and released on 15 September by the state and federal election commissions.

[23][24] Issues being debated included immigration, integration, crime and security, tax cuts, job creation/reducing unemployment, pensions and care for the elderly.

The ten candidates with the most preferential votes on a federal level were as follows:[25] On 20 October, Sebastian Kurz was officially instructed by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen to form a new government.