Austria will not have a government headed by the extreme right, at least for the moment. The La Libertad Party (FPö), led by Herbert Kickl, winner of the legislative last September, and the Christian Stocker (Övp) democrats (Övp), seconds in the elections, negotiations have broken on Wednesday to form a coalition executive initiated In early January. If a short -term solution is not found, the decision opens the road to possible elections advanced only three and a half months after opening the polls that gave the ultra -right their first victory in parliamentarians.
After a week of strong tension in negotiations and mutual reproaches in public, the two leaders have made a final attempt on Wednesday to reach an agreement with a personal encounter that has been brief, according to the Austrian media. Kickl has later addressed the presidential palace to inform the president of the country, Alexander van der Bellen. In a statement shortly after, the FPö has indicated that “the coalition negotiations with the ÖVP have failed” and that, consequently, “renounces the government formation mandate that he received” from the president.
The conversations have already started under the sign of distrust. Kickl announced them with a speech full of reproaches to the democratians for their management in the last legislature (in coalition with the green), more typical of an opposition leader than of a future partner. The Övp swallowed the toad and shortly after both parties were confident in achieving commitments around the decrease in the budget deficit to avoid the opening of a procedure by Brussels. But during the last week the conversations have tensioned to the fullest for the discussion about the future distribution of portfolios, especially finance and internal, and the European agenda, that the ÖVP did not want to see in the hands of a Eurosceptic and Proruso party. Mutual misgivings and criticisms thrown through the Austrian media have dominated the conversations until the end.
On Tuesday, the president of the country, Alexander Van Der Bellen, received the two leaders and urged them to “clarify quickly and definitively” if they were able to reach a final agreement that has not been possible; Austria has never taken so long to agree on an executive after elections and at the moment he will continue with a acting cabinet.
The two attempts to form a new government have failed. Although the FPö won the elections with 28.8% of the votes, their first victory in legislative, the rest of the parties rejected a coalition with Kickl, considered a radical. A danger to security and democracy, as denounced by democratians themselves. Given this situation, Van Der Bellen decided to skip the tradition and not commission the search for a government pact to the FPö after his victory, but to the then chancellor and leader of the ÖVP, Karl Nehammer, with 26.3% of the votes. But the attempt to reach an agreement with the social democrats of the Spö (21.1%) and the Liberals of Neos (9.1%) jumped through the air in early January, which opened the door to Kickl to become the First ultra -rightist chancellor of the country in democracy by finally receiving the president of the President of Form Government.
The ÖVP only took one day to take a 360 degree turn about its position against Kickl after Clear Nehammer the way with its resignation as the leader of the ÖVP and as chancellor – the acting government now directs the Foreign Minister, Alexander Schallenberg, of the same game – when a possible tripartite fails that excludes the ultra -rightists of power.
However, as the conversations advanced to trompicons, the voices have multiplied within the “now directed by Stocker – contrary to a pact. Democristians govern with the ultras in several regions of the country and have formed coalition with them in national executives, but always with the ultra -right as a minority partner.
To the growing restlessness within the party for the FPö claim to control the main wallets and to link the European agenda to a Foreign Ministry led by Kickl, criticisms have been added from abroad to the decision of the conservatives to shake hands with the Ultras, especially from Germany, immersed in the debate on the sanitary cordon around AFD and campaigning for the February 23 elections. The progress of the ultra -right in the European Union would add with a Foreign Minister Kickl, admirer confessed by Hungarian Viktor Orbán, a new ally presumably willing to torpedo Brussels agenda with Budapest, especially around the support of Ukraine for Russian invasion. The FPö is part of the Patriots Group by European Parliament, founded by Orbán and Marine Le Pen, leader of the French national regrouping.
The criticism and warnings against the coalition with the ultras seemed reliable in the EU and defender of a rule of law that combats extremisms. In return, the ÖVP declared himself willing to harden the immigration policy – the FPö star theme – to the point of calibrating a rejection of new asylum requests, contrary to international law.
In addition to the requirement to maintain the Europeanist line in the Government, the Ministry of Interior became another red line for democristians. Kickl was responsible for that portfolio during the ÖVP coalition with the ultras in the first government of Sebastian Kurz (2017-2019), which sank a corruption scandal that affected the then leader Ultra Heinz-Christian Strache. Under his management, a raid was ordered in the internal intelligence services that was subsequently declared illegal by the courts and that he fed the suspicions that Kickl sought control over the investigations to the extreme right. The result was an absolute discredit of Austrian espionage services abroad, which led to its re -foundation to recover lost trust.
