At the beginning of this week, the president of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen, tasked the leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), Herbert Kickl, the task of form government after the collapse last weekend in previous negotiations between conservatives, social democrats and centrists.
Today, just two days later, the People’s Party (ÖVP) has announced that has accepted the invitation of the Freedom Partywinner of the elections last September 29, to negotiate the formation of a new government in Austria.
This was reported at a press conference by the interim president of the ÖVP, Christian Stocker, successor to the until now federal chancellor and former Christian Democrat leader, Karl Nehammer, who resigned after the failure of talks on a tripartite executive between conservatives, social democrats and liberals to distance the FPÖ from power.
Last night the FPÖ leadership gave its approval for Kickl, to start talks with Stocker this weekwith the aim of starting formal negotiations on a coalition as soon as possible.
The Christian Democrat leader reviewed this Wednesday the basic principles that in his opinion should be maintained in the country, as a Strong rule of law, freedom of expression and the press, an independent Justicethe fight against anti-Semitism and Austria’s active participation in the European Union.
In this way, Stocker seemed to want to make it clear to Kickl that his party is not willing to give up any of those principles during the negotiations. Although the FPÖ and ÖVP programs are very similar in economic and migration policy, they are very different in foreign, judicial, security and freedom of expression policies.
Main fears
The fear of the other parties and civil society is that an executive led by the FPÖ ends up undermining the rule of law and limiting freedom of the press and the independence of Justicefollowing the model of Hungary or Slovakia.
In fact, the Hungarian leader, the ultranationalist Viktor Orbán is one of Kickl’s main allieswho rejects Western sanctions against Russia and whose party signed a friendship agreement in 2016 with “United Russia”, the party of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ties with Moscow
In apparent reference to the FPÖ’s ties to Moscow, Stocker has noted that his party wants “a democracy and a society that can resist” current threats, particularly from Russia.
“We do not want any dependence, especially on Russia, which means that we want Austria to have full sovereignty against any foreign influenceand that also means that we need allies, which is the opposite of isolation,” concluded the new conservative leader.
“I’m going to have the conversation (with Kickl) but I need honest answers“added Stocker, who, unlike the far-right leader, did accept questions from the press this Wednesday.
According to the Austrian press, Stocker and Kickl’s meeting could take place this Wednesdaywith the aim of starting more specific conservations between the two games this Friday.
The Foreign Minister, the new interim head of the Austrian Government
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will become the interim head of government after the resignation of conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer after failing coalition negotiations that left out the FPÖ ultras.
The Presidency announced this Wednesday the change at the head of the Executive until a stable government coalition is formed arising from the elections of last September 29, in which the FPÖ won with 28.8% of the votes.
Schallenberg takes office as the politician of the current government with the most years of experience in the Executive after the resignation of Nehammer, who had promised that under his leadership the People’s Party (ÖVP) would not accept the FPÖ in the chancellery.
The Foreign Minister, 55 years old, is a veteran of Austrian diplomacy and this is the second time he takes office as head of government after a brief period in 2021, following the resignation of another conservative chancellor, Sebastian Kurz.
Schallenberg of the ÖVP has already made it clear that will not participate in a government led by the far-right Herbert Kicklwhom Nehammer defined on several occasions as “a risk to Austria’s security.”
