Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen asked the leader of the far-right FPÖ party, Herbert Kickl, this Monday, January 6, to find a majority to govern. This is a first in the history of the Alpine country, after the failure of negotiations by other political forces.
In view of “ the new situation (…), I loaded » Herbert Kickl, whose political group, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) came first in the legislative elections in Austria at the end of September with nearly 29% of the votes, “ to hold discussions with the conservatives “, declared the environmentalist head of state, Alexander van der Bellen. The Austrian president spoke after a meeting of just over an hour with the far-right leader, adding that he had “not wasn’t easy to take » such a decision.
Although the FPÖ has already participated in power as a minority partner, it has never held the chancellery in this EU member state of nine million inhabitants. Before the vote, Alexander van der Bellen did not hide his reluctance towards Herbert Kickl, who in the past called him “ senile mummy “. And the octogenarian head of state preferred, in October, to choose the outgoing conservative chancellor Karl Nehammer to lead the negotiations, contrary to custom which normally reserves this right to the winning party.
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