After the failure of negotiations with the SPÖ, Karl Nehammer announced on Saturday January 4 his intention to leave his post, leaving the door open to new elections for which the FPÖ (far right) is the favorite.
Austrian conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced on Saturday that he will step down as chancellor and chairman of his party “in the coming days”after ending negotiations with the Social Democrats to try to form the next government.
“After the breakdown of the coalition negotiations, I […] will step down as both Chancellor and Chairman of the People’s Party in the coming days and enable an orderly transition,” indicated the leader of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), the party in power since 1987 (either in the majority or in the minority), in a written and video message posted Saturday evening on the social network from September 29.
This decision comes the day after the liberal Neos party decided to withdraw from tripartite negotiations aimed at forming a centrist government, the aim of which was to remove the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) from power. The far-right party, founded by former Nazis, came first in the legislative elections with 28.8% of the vote. But found himself unable to find allies to form a government.
“bulwark against radicals”
The ÖVP came in second with 26.3% of the vote, followed by the center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) with 21.1%. These results had led Karl Nehammer to initiate discussions with the SPÖ and Neos (9% of the vote) to form a government and block the far right, but the three-party negotiations failed on Friday with the withdrawal of Neos.
The two remaining parties said they wanted to continue the work. But on Saturday, after 24 hours of further discussions, Mr. Nehammer announced on “agreement with the SPÖ is impossible on key issues” and that “therefore”, he put “end of negotiations with the SPÖ”.
The main areas of contention cited by Austrian media are wealth tax, inheritance taxes, pensions, and differences over how to control the budget deficit. The Chancellor deplored not having been able to create a “strength of political centrism in order to build a bulwark against the radicals”. “I have a deep conviction that radicals do not offer the solution to a single problem, but only live to highlight the problems,” he added, claiming to have “always fought for stability”, even if it was not “not sexy in politics”.
Conservatives close to the far right “won”
In a statement, far-right party leader Herbert Kickl called «losers» the parties involved in the coalition discussions. “Instead of stability we have chaos” after three “wasted months”he added. The leader of the Social Democrats, Andreas Babler, estimated that those within the conservative party “always flirted” with the extreme right “took it away”, pointing out the risk of “FPÖ-ÖVP government with a far-right extremist chancellor.”
On Friday, President Alexander Van der Bellen called on the ÖVP and SPÖ to form a government “without delay”. The environmentalist had initially asked the conservatives to form a stable government that respects the “foundations of our liberal democracy”. In the past, he has repeatedly expressed reservations about the radical leader of the FPÖ, Herbert Kickl. The former eminence grise of the party, an ally of the National Rally at European level, has notably appropriated the racist notion of “remigration”, with the plan of stripping their nationality and expelling Austrians of foreign origin.
If the conservative ÖVP decides to form a government with the far-right FPÖ, President “must prepare to induct Kickl as chancellor”warned political analyst Peter Filzmaier. If the two parties do not engage in discussions or fail to reach an agreement, “there will be new elections”, he added. Elections for which the latest polls bring the FPÖ, which has not governed since 2019, to 35%.
A coalition of three parties to form a government would have been a first since 1949 in Austria, where the economy is losing momentum while the public deficit is soaring. The conservative chancellor had already warned that the coalition discussions, which began in October – initially without the liberals – promised to be difficult.
