Self-elimination of the Austrian Parliament

The National Council was left without a presiding officer, when all three chairmen resigned to try to tip the balance in a knife-edge vote.

The law had no mechanism for the National Council to operate without a president, and Engelbert Dollfuss, the Chancellor, stated that Parliament had eliminated itself and that his government had the authority to rule by decree under emergency provisions dating from the First World War.

This was a decisive step in the transition from a democratic republic to the authoritarian and quasi-fascist Federal State of Austria, as opposition attempts to reconstitute the National Council were unsuccessful.

After the session was resumed, the president and Chairman of the National Council, Social Democrat Karl Renner, announced that the vote had some irregularities because of the actions of two of his fellow Social Democrats, Wilhelm Scheibein [de] and Simon Abram [de].

The events of March 4, 1933, were an unexpected boon for Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, who had sought an opportunity for imposing authoritarian rule.

This "self-elimination" gave Dollfuss a pretext for a self-coup, since he had no intention of allowing the National Council to meet in full again.

[6] The first section of this law reads as follows:The government is empowered for the duration of the extraordinary conditions brought about by the war to make provision through decree for the necessary measures for promoting and revitalizing economic activities, for warding off economic damages, and supplying the population with food and other necessities.

[9] Over a million people signed a petition to ask then sitting Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas to recall the government of Dollfuss and initiate new elections to reinstate the National Council.

On February 12, 1934, SDAPÖ and its paramilitary wing (Republikanischer Schutzbund) started an armed rebellion against Dolfuss, which was later joined by the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ), which had already been banned by the government in 1933 and was operating underground.