LThings happened very quickly. The small liberal party Neos had barely left the negotiating table – intended to form a tripartite coalition government at the center with the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democrats (SPÖ) – when, surprisingly, the conservative chancellor Karl Nehammer announced his resignation on Saturday. At the same time, he also renounced the presidency of his party.
This Sunday morning, the leadership of the Popular Party therefore appointed its secretary general, Christian Stocker, to succeed him at the head of the party, according to the Crown newspaper. Aged 64, Christian Stocker should assume the role of interim head of government.
He quickly declared that he expected the Freedom Party (FPÖfar right), who came first in the September legislative elections, is tasked with forming a government after the failure of negotiations to form a centrist coalition. “If we are invited to these negotiations [de coalition]we will accept this invitation,” he told the press.
Divergent interests
Three months after the elections of September 29 and after hours and hours of negotiations, efforts to find a majority capable of blocking the far right have therefore collapsed. Main stumbling block: the new budget. Karl Nehammer in fact justified his resignation by the fact that it is “impossible to find an agreement with the social democrats on the […] Read more
