Austrian People’s Party Secretary General Christian Stock speaks to the media while presenting a campaign poster on September 4, 2024 in Vienna, Austria.
Leonhard Fogg | Reuters
Austria’s ruling conservatives have chosen Secretary General Christian Stock as interim successor to Chancellor Karl Nehammer after Nehammer resigned amid failed attempts to form a coalition government without the far right, Austrian media reported on Sunday. .
There was no immediate comment from the People’s Party (OVP), with Nehammer telling reporters only after the party’s crisis leadership meeting on Sunday that “an important and correct decision” had been taken.
Three-party and bipartisan talks aimed at forming a centrist coalition that could serve as a bulwark against the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) unexpectedly collapsed after the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) came first in September’s parliamentary elections, prompting President Alexander van der Beek to Alexander Van der Bellen stepped down.
The most likely options now are snap elections, with support still growing for the Eurosceptic, pro-Russian Free Democrats, or a U-turn by van der Bellen asking Liberal leader Herbert Kickel to form a government, but There is limited room for alternatives or competition.
“This is not an easy situation,” Markus Wallner, the governor of Vorarlberg, the westernmost of Austria’s nine provinces, told reporters ahead of an OVP leadership meeting in the chancellor’s office on Sunday morning. .
“I believe we must do everything we can now to avoid falling into a national crisis.”
Varner said he opposed snap elections because they would delay the arrival of a new government by several months. OVP governors are part of the leadership.
Van der Bellen’s spokesman said he would address the nation at 2:45 pm (1345 GMT). Nehammer had earlier crossed the street that separated the offices to report to Van der Bellen about the OVP leadership meeting.
Nehammer insisted during and after the campaign that his party would not govern with Kickl because he was a conspiracy theorist and posed a security risk, while saying that most members of Kickl’s party were Trustworthy.
Nehammer’s successor is likely to be more open to a coalition with the Free Democrats, which is formally allied with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party.
Growing support for FPO
The FPO won the September election with about 29% of the vote, and polls show that its support has only grown since then, extending its lead over the OVP and Social Democrats to more than 10 percentage points, while Their approval ratings are declining.
The OVP and FPO overlap on many issues, especially taking hard-line stances on immigration, to the point where the FPO accuses the OVP of stealing its ideas.
The two governed together from late 2017 to 2019, when a video scandal involving the then-FPO leader prompted the collapse of their alliance. At the cantonal level, they jointly govern five of the nine cantons, including the Vorarlberg canton of OVP moderate Wollner.
The national dynamics are different now because if they were to form a coalition, the OVP would be the junior partner of the FPO for the first time, making the OVP leadership position difficult and unpopular for many.
The media initially reported that household names such as former party leader Sebastian Kurz, who led the last coalition with the FPO but was later convicted of perjury, could become OVP leader. Reports overnight said they were no longer involved in the campaign.
That leaves some lesser-known figures, such as Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer, the 45-year-old new chamber secretary-general.
Meanwhile, the FPO reinforced its message.
“Austria now needs a Chancellor Kickel,” the X said.
