Schallenberg, 55, will take over from outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who announced his resignation over the weekend after his efforts to build a coalition without the far-right Freedom Party failed. ).
ADVERTISEMENT
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will act in the interim while the Freedom Party (far right) will attempt to establish a new coalition governmentthe president’s office said Wednesday.
Mr Schallenberg, 55, will take over from outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who announced his resignation over the weekend after his efforts to put together a coalition without the Freedom Party failed. Mr. Nehammer plans to leave office on Friday.
President Alexander Van der Bellen's office said in a statement that the head of state would formally task Mr. Schallenberg with “continuing the management of the chancellery and leading the interim government.”
This will be Mr Schallenberg's second term as head of Austria. Mr Schallenberg served as chancellor for less than two months at the end of 2021, after the resignation of Sebastian Kurz, before handing over to Mr Nehammer and returning to the Foreign Ministry.
The anti-immigration, Eurosceptic, pro-Russia Freedom Party won Austria's parliamentary elections in September but was initially rejected by other parties.
After the announcement of Mr. Nehammer's resignation, the Austrian conservative party, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), abruptly made an about-face, refusing to consider collaboration with the Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl.
-At the same time, the leader of the Freedom Party (FPÖ), Herbert Kickl declared his intention to invite the ÖVP to talks to form a coalition and to calm relations between the two political groups, still hostile until recently. time before.
If the conservative ÖVP party is the only viable coalition partner, according to Herbert Kickl, the far-right leader urged the party to be “honest” in the talks at the risk of facing new early elections.
Herbert Kickl said he did not want to waste time and now wanted to launch a “massive political firefighting operation”.
Coalition negotiations between the far right and the Conservatives are not guaranteed to succeed, but there are no other realistic options left in the current Parliament and polls suggest new elections could soon further strengthen the Party of freedom.
Herbert Kickl's party was victorious in those elections, winning 28.8 percent of the vote and overtaking outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer's conservative ÖVP, which came second.
Previously, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen had tasked conservative Karl Nehammer with forming a government. Efforts to form a government alliance without the FPÖ failed in early January, prompting Karl Nehammer to resign.
