Federal State of Austria in 1931 pursued the idea of overcoming the ongoing class struggle by the implementation of a corporative form of government modelled on Italian fascism and Portugal’s Estado Novo. The CS politician Engelbert Dollfuss, appointed Chancellor of Austria in 1932, on 4 March 1933 saw an opportunity in the resignation of Social Democrat Karl Renner as president of the Austrian "Nationalrat", after irregularities occurred during a voting process. Dollfuss called the incident a "self-elimination" ("Selbstausschaltung") of the parliament and had the following meeting on 15 March forcibly prorogued by the forces of the Vienna police department. His party fellow, President Wilhelm
Chancellor of Austria sworn in by the President. In theory, the President can appoint anyone eligible to be elected to the National Council, essentially meaning any Austrian national over the age of 18. In practice, a Chancellor is unable to govern unless he or she commands the confidence of the National Council. For this reason, the Chancellor usually is the leader of the largest party in the National Council, or the senior partner in a coalition government. A notable exception to this occurred after the 1999 election. The Freedom Party won the most seats and went into coalition with the People's Party. While