The elections of 1953 brought losses for the government parties, moreso the SPÖ however, and gains for the two opposition parties, the VdU and the KPÖ. Days after the election, news from Russia shocked the world: Josef Stalin, who had led his nation for thirty years, had died. With Russian interest turned away from small Austria, ÖVP-leader Raab had free hand in choosing his government partners, in the end deciding for a "concentration government" of ÖVP, SPÖ and VdU, decidedly refusing to take any offers from the Communists. Raab was soon inagurated as Chancellor, while the Vice-Chancellor was sent by the SPÖ, Bruno Pittermann, who ascended to the position following Schärf's defeat.
The new government oversaw one big development for Austria: The signage of the State Treaty, and the later regained national sovereignity, on May 1 and October 26 1955, respectively. The same date, October 2016, the so-called "neutrality law" was passed, compelling the nation to "ever-lasting neutrality", a provision insisted upon by the USSR and earning large support by the population of the still largely war-torn nation.
A year later, May 1956, new elections awaited Austria, with the following parties competing:
ÖVP:The ÖVP, party of "State Treaty Chancellor" Raab, is campaigning on this very issue - being the party that brought back sovereignity to the nation. Very much obliged to neutrality, the party also campaigns on the economical success Austria has seen in the last years.
SPÖ
The SPÖ has a new leader, Bruno Pittermann, but their program remained much of the same, being the voice for the Austrian workers and lower class. They have moved toward the center however, trying to regain lost support from the last elections, moderating their proposals in fear of sounding too much like communists.
VdU:The VdU has suffered a split in 1955, with a large part of its german-national wing joining the new FPÖ; but leader Kraus and fellows have taken the chance to get the party a new, free market liberal outlook. They campaign on relieving regulations on entepreneurs, claiming Austria could see far more economic upturn than experienced in the years before.
KPÖFollowing Stalin's death and the factual end to Stalinism as the mainline communist ideology, the KPÖ has elected a new leader, the intellectual and pro-Tito Ernst Fischer, over the pro-Stalin Koplenig. Subsequently, the party has turned itsself more to the southern neighbour Yugoslavia, but also severing its ties with the communist parties of France and Italy, less so though with the nations "behind the iron curtain", with the obvious exception of Imre Nagy's Hungary.
FPÖThe FPÖ under former SS-Major Anton Reinthaller took up a large part of the right-national and formerly Nazi wing of the VdU, being the new option for the far-right, far more outspokenly though following the regaining of sovereignity.
3 days
NOTE: Seeing the great support of the VdU in this timeline, I have allowed myself to let it continue existing as a liberal party, simply because it would be unlogical to see them collapse into the FPÖ the same way as irl. Secondly, I have allowed to give the far stronger KPÖ in this timeline a more Eurocommunist outlook far earlier on, again mainly for reasons of logic. Thirdly, maybe this will impact some choices here, the election sets place half a year before the Hungarian Revolution!
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