NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum
NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS – Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum) is a liberal political party in Austria. It was founded as NEOS – The New Austria in 2012. In 2014, NEOS merged with Liberal Forum and adopted its current name. Since 2018, NEOS's chairwoman and parliamentary leader has been Beate Meinl-Reisinger. It is the smallest party in the National Council with 15 seats, and won 8.3% in the 2019 legislative election. NEOS is represented in six of Austria's nine Landtage, and is involved in government in Vienna. NEOS is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and its one MEP sits with the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. NEOS – The New Austria held its founding convention on 27 October 2012. Political advisor Matthias Strolz was elected chairman with 96.2% of votes. He stated the party would "counter stagnation and corruption in Austrian politics", and that it was an alternative for moderate voters disillusioned with the ruling coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). He stated the party's goal for the next federal election was to win over 10% of votes. Upon its foundation, the party claimed a membership of 350. In January 2013, it reportedly had over 1,000 members. In March 2013, NEOS formed an alliance with the Liberal Forum and JuLis – Young Liberals Austria, operating under the NEOS brand. In April, the party conducted its first public primaries to determine its federal list for the upcoming election. Voters were divided into three groups – the general public, the party board, and NEOS members – and each group's votes were weighted equally. There were 64 candidates, who were not required to be NEOS members. 1,561 people voted in the primaries. The final composition of the NEOS federal list was announced on 1 May 2013. On 13 July, NEOS announced it had gathered 3,100 signatures for the upcoming election, exceeding the 2,600 required to appear on ballots nationwide.
