VIENNA, AUSTRIA – AUGUST 8: Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer speaks at the Federal Chancellery on August 8, 2024 in Vienna, Austria.
Thomas Kronsteiner | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Negotiations between Austria’s two main centrist parties to form a coalition government without the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) collapsed on Saturday, prompting conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer to announce his resignation.
A day earlier, third-party liberal party Nios withdrew from talks, accusing other parties of failing to take the bold and decisive action it had called for.
“I will resign as prime minister and leader of the People’s Party in the coming days and achieve an orderly transition,” Nehammer said in a video statement on X after talks with the Social Democratic Party (SPO).
The collapse of coalition talks three months after September’s parliamentary elections highlights the increasing difficulty of forming stable governments in European countries such as Germany and France, where far-right forces are on the rise but many parties are unwilling to cooperate with them.
The Eurosceptic, pro-Russian FPO won that election with about 29% of the vote. It would have needed a coalition partner to govern, but Nehammer ruled out running with FPO leader Herbert Kickl, meaning the FPO would not have any potential coalition partners.
Therefore, Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen, former leader of the Green Party, tasked Nehammer with forming a government. Now that Nehammer is about to step down, the two most likely options are either to put Kicker in charge of forming a government or to hold early elections.
Nehammer said Kickel was too conspiratorial and unfit to lead the government, but said much of the FPO’s content was trustworthy.
Kickel, however, is no outsider within his party, which overlaps with Nehammer’s on issues such as immigration.
The leadership of Nehammer’s People’s Party (OVP) is scheduled to meet on Sunday morning to discuss who should succeed him. Whoever takes over is likely to be more open to an alliance with the FPO, an approach that most in the OVP favor.
From 2017 to 2019, the two parties governed in coalition under the leadership of the OVP. In 2019, the then leader of the FPO fell due to a video scandal and the alliance collapsed.
The rise of the far right
Support for the FPO has increased since the last election. Polls show it leads the People’s Party (OVP) and the Social Democrats by more than 10 percentage points.
This created a dilemma for President Van der Bellen, who expressed reservations about Kickel becoming prime minister.
SPO leader Andreas Babler confirmed at a press conference that negotiations had broken down and accused Nehammer’s party of trying to withhold the pensions and salaries of teachers and police officers. Nehammer accused the SPO of insisting on taxing wealth and inheritance, the SPO’s flagship campaign policy.
“We know what is likely to happen now. A Lib Dem and People’s Party government with a right-wing extremist prime minister as prime minister will endanger our democracy in many ways,” Babler said.
Kickl has been unhappy with coalition talks and Van der Bellen’s decision not to give him the task of forming a government, again likening them to Germany’s recently collapsed three-party “traffic light alliance”.
“Nehammer, Babler and Van der Bellen also failed. They were the architects of the traffic light (coalition) of losers and now face the ruins of Kicker’s prevention strategy,” Kicker said in a statement.
“Alexander van der Bellen bears considerable responsibility for the chaos that occurred and the time that was wasted… He is under pressure to act after today’s events.”
