Newspapers publish opinion polls regularly. While single results for the so called "Sonntagsfrage" ("Who would you vote for at the moment?") fluctuate often, a time series can show some general trends - like a decline in support for SPOE and OEVP, the regain in strength of the FPOE (after almost breaking apart), the rise and fall of the BZOE after the death of its leader Joerg Haider or the limited success of new parties. Adding the margin of error shows another thing: Many times it is not possible to identify the strongest party with certainty. Since the last election in 2013 three parties are competing for the first place.
The chart combines polling data published in Austrian newspapers from 2006 to 2015 with some important political events. Parties with no seats in parliament were excluded. Clicking on the chart allows to zoom in and out. The margin of error is calculated for each poll, based on its sample size (0.05 significance). If no size is provided, a sample of 500 people is assumed.