The Austrian federal election of 1997 was contested on Saturday, June 21, 1997 to elect the Parliament of Austria. The SPÖ, governing in a majority government under Franz Vranitzky, lost eight seats to narrow their majority to only two seats (127) while the NVP ended up with 72 seats and the VA had their lowest vote total in history, clocking in only 19.2% of the vote and sitting at 50 seats, a loss of 26 from the prior election. It would be the first time the NVP formed the Official Opposition of Austria. The Democratic Party, a minority-rights group formed by the 1995 merger of the Slovene Democratic Party and Party for Istria, lost nine seats and had only one member in Parliament afterwards, leading to the party disbanding in 1998 and the final member joining the SPÖ, giving Vranitzky's