Self-elimination of the Austrian Parliament

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The self-elimination of Parliament (German: Selbstausschaltung des Parlaments) was a constitutional crisis in the First Austrian Republic caused by the resignation on March 4, 1933, of all three presidents of the National Council, the more powerful house of the Austrian Parliament. The National Council was left without a presiding officer, when all three chairmen resigned to try to tip the balance in a knife-edge vote. The law had no mechanism for the National Council to operate without a president, and Engelbert Dollfuss, the Chancellor, stated that Parliament had eliminated itself and that his government had the authority to rule by decree under emergency provisions dating from the First World War. This was a decisive step in the transition from a democratic republic to the authoritarian Federal State of Austria, as opposition attempts to reconstitute the National Council were unsuccessful.

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