The ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) has appointed Christian Stocker, its general secretary, as interim president of the formation after the resignation of Karl Nehammer.
The decision has been taken in a extraordinary and urgent meeting in Vienna.
The conservatives already have a new general secretary
This urgent decision has been taken as consequence of the resignation of Karl Nehammer on Saturday late afternoon. In a message on social networks, Nehammer has announced the end “of negotiations with the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and we will not continue them.” In this way, the popular man leaves the position he has held since December 2021.
Austria celebrated elections on September 28 in which the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) won with 28.8% of the votes. The ÖVP won 26.3% and the SPÖ 21.1%.
In this way, negotiations began to leave out the extreme right and form a tripartite between the popular, the social democrats and the neoliberals from NEOS.
“More state responsibility is needed”
Nehammer refuses to negotiate a government agreement with Herbert Kickl, the leader of the far-right, because he has “the deep conviction that the radicals do not offer any solution to even a single problem.”
For his part, the leader of the Social Democrats, Andreas Bable, has assured that Nehammer’s decision is due to “political tactics” and that “more State responsibility is needed.”
At the moment, it is not known who will be Nehammer’s replacement at the head of the Government outgoing, the coalition formed by the conservatives and the greens.
Surveys have reported that If there were a repeat election, the extreme right would increase its victory and they point out that they would reach 35%. Another possibility is that, without Nehammer, FPÖ and SPÖ negotiate. The decision has to be made by environmentalist Alexander Van der Bellen because he is the one who has the power to form a government.
