Austrian conservatives announced today that they are ready to start negotiations with the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) on the formation of a new government, as negotiations on a coalition with two centrist parties failed.
On Saturday, conservative Chancellor Karl Nehamer stopped talks on forming a government without the FPO, which won the parliamentary elections for the first time in September.
After the collapse of negotiations, Nehamer said he would step down as chancellor and president of the Austrian People's Party (OVP) in the coming days to allow for a "smooth transition". He held both positions from the end of 2021.
At the Conservative leadership meeting on Sunday, OVP general secretary Christian Stocker was elected as the interim leader of the party.
Stocker said his party has authorized him to enter into coalition talks with the far right if it asks for it.
"This country needs a stable government right now and we can't waste time on election campaigns or elections that we don't have," Štoker said.
Shortly before that, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen announced that he would meet FPO leader Herbert Kikl on Monday to "discuss the new situation".
"Voices within the OVP that rule out working with ... Kiklo have become significantly quieter," Fan der Belen told reporters.
"This means that a new path may be opening that did not exist before," he said, adding that he would appoint an interim chancellor in the coming week.
At the press conference, Stocker welcomed the president's decision to hold talks with the far-right leader, whose party won almost 29 percent of the vote, but has so far failed to find partners to form a government.
It is not clear, however, whether Fan der Bellen will task the far-right leader with trying to form Austria's next government.
Fan der Bellen initially tasked the conservatives with forming a stable government that respects "the foundations of our liberal democracy."
He previously expressed reservations about Kikl, whose party currently has around 35 percent support in polls.
Political scientist Thomas Hofer told AFP that a far-right-led coalition with the conservatives as a minor partner had become "very likely". The OVP "cannot afford" early elections, he claims.
Nehamer said on Saturday that he wanted to be "the strength of the political center to build a bulwark against the radicals".
In a statement late on Saturday after Nehamer's announcement that the negotiations had failed and that he was withdrawing, Kikl said that the parties involved in the coalition negotiations were "losers".
He added that "instead of stability, we have chaos" after three "wasted months".
In the September elections, the conservative Austrian People's Party took second place with 26 percent of the vote, while the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPO) got 21 percent.
The OVP has been in the government since 1987. Several times since 2000, the far-right FPO has been a minor partner in the coalition government.
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