Austria’s Chancellor to step down in ‘coming days’ as coalition talks collapse
Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer has announced his decision to step down in “coming days” as talks on forming a coalition government collapsed for the second time.
“I will stand down as chancellor and as leader of the (conservative) People’s Party (OVP) in the coming days and enable an orderly transition,” Nehammer said in a video statement on X after coalition talks.
The surprise announcement came a day after the liberal party NEOS withdrew from three-party coalition talks with the center-left Social Democrats (SPOe).
The aim had been to sideline the Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which won the September 29 national elections.
The FPOe won 28.8 percent of the vote but has been unable to find a partner to form a coalition government.
OVP came second with 26.3 percent, while SPOe won 21.1 percent.
Nehammer had aimed to form a coalition government with the SPOe and NEOS to shut out the far right. However, the three-way talks collapsed on Friday.
NEOS leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger blamed the other two parties in the coalition talks for the collapse of the negotiations.
“We NEOS will not continue negotiations on a possible three-party coalition,” their leader told a press conference, accusing the other parties of lacking the courage to take bold decisions, including in their last meeting that ran into Thursday night.
Senior SPO officials said the announcement by the NEOS had surprised them.
SPO leader Andreas Babler confirmed at a news conference that the talks had collapsed.
“We know what threatens to happen now. An FPO-OVP government with a right-wing extremist chancellor that will endanger our democracy on many points,” Babler said.
After Nehammer steps down, the two most likely options are either that FPO leader Herbert Kickl is tasked by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen with forming a government, or a snap election is held.
In a statement, Kickl complained that the three main party leaders had wasted months on their “Kickl prevention strategy.”
“Instead of speed in forming a government, we now have three lost months. Instead of stability, we have chaos,” he said.
Austria has been in a recession for the past two years, is experiencing rising unemployment and its budget deficit is currently at 3.7 percent of GDP, above the EU’s limit of 3 percent.
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