Following the collapse of coalition talks between three centrist parties over the weekend, Austria’s president, Alexander Van der Bellen, has tasked Herbert Kickl, leader of the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ), with attempting to form a government.
The anti-globalist party will now likely join forces with the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP), which has a new leadership willing to work with the FPÖ.
After meeting with Kickl on Monday, January 6th, Van der Bellen said he instructed the FPÖ leader “to start talks with the ÖVP on the formation of a federal government. Herbert Kickl will keep me informed about the progress of these talks.”
The meeting on Monday marks a significant U-turn in Austrian politics. In October, the president went against political custom and declined to allow the victor of the September national elections, FPÖ, to form a government. Despite the anti-globalist party’s clear victory, Van der Bellen opted for the second-placed centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP).
As he did in October, the president once again signalled his disdain for the FPÖ by insinuating that the party could take anti-democratic measures once it enters government. Van der Bellen said he had not taken the decision to task FPÖ with forming a government “lightly.” “I will continue to ensure that the principles and rules of our constitution are correctly observed and adhered to,” he emphasised.
The centre-right ÖVP was trying to form a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the liberal NEOS party for almost three months. On Friday, however, NEOS pulled out of talks, and on Saturday, ÖVP leader Karl Nehammer discontinued further negotiations with SPÖ. Nehammer also announced his resignation over the weekend as a direct result of the failed negotiations.
Synchronising three completely different political programmes was always going to be a tough proposition and in the end, it failed. The three parties disagreed on a number of issues, but it was primarily economic questions that caused negotiations to collapse. The SPÖ insisted on increasing taxes and introducing new ones to rein in the country’s ballooning budget deficit, but the ÖVP rejected taxing wealth and inheritance.
On the other hand, ÖVP’s and right-wing FPÖ’s programmes overlap on various issues, particularly when it comes to taking a tough line on immigration. The two parties could have started the process of negotiating to form a coalition in October, but Nehammer rebuked Kickl’s offer of working together and rejected the choice of the electorate, which had hoped for Austria to have a conservative government.
On Saturday, Nehammer said that he had wanted to be “the force of the political centre in order to build a bulwark against the radicals,” who “only live by describing problems” rather than solving them.
Reacting to the collapse of government talks, Herbert Kickl said that “the FPÖ has been warning for months about this political monstrosity of the loser-traffic-light coalition. People have had enough!” He said that “instead of stability, we have chaos” after three “wasted months.”
Austrians have had enough and are frustrated at seeing their vote being ignored by the political establishment. Since the elections in September, the FPÖ’s popularity has risen from 29% to 37%, while the ÖVP’s has dropped from 26% to 21%.
Nehammer’s resignation and a change in leadership within the ÖVP now pave the way for a conservative government to take power.
“This country needs a stable government right now, and we can’t keep losing time to election campaigns or elections that we don’t have,” new interim party leader Christian Stocker said on Sunday. He added that he had been authorised by his party to enter into coalition talks with the FPÖ if invited to do so.
The two parties governed Austria together between 2017 and 2019 until the collapse of their coalition due to a corruption scandal. ÖVP and FPÖ also make up coalitions in five of Austria’s nine states—Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Upper Austria, and Vorarlberg—meaning they have much more in common than Nehammer wanted voters to believe.
There may be some bickering on issues such as the European Union, where FPÖ wants a more sovereigntist approach, and Ukraine, as the right-wing party refuses to aid the country militarily and rejects EU sanctions imposed on Russia.
