The president of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellenstudies this Sunday the political course of his country. The collapse of negotiations to form a coalition government has claimed the chancellor and president of the Austrian People’s Party (OVP), Karl Niehammer. This reopens the possibility that the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), the most voted in the September 29 electionsfinish jumping an already completely fractured “cordon sanitaire” and receive a mandate to form a government.
“We are going to see if the Popular Party understands with what has happened, even a little, the power that the population holds through the ballot box,” declared the leader of the FPO, Herbert Kickl this Sunday. “Now they are facing the debris from your prevention strategy“, he added without evading Van der Bellen’s opinion.
The head of the far-right party in Vienna, Dominik Nepp, has offered two alternatives: a negotiation with the People’s Party, or the calling of new electionsas he made known in an interview with the Austrian public radio television ORF. In the latest polls, the FPO would experience a notable increase in its support, going from 29% obtained in the elections to the National Council to about 35%.
Sources from the Austrian media indicate that Van der Bellen is awaiting the popular party’s decision on the possibility of starting talks with the extreme right with a view to a government coalition in which it would be the junior partnerknowing that they are still behind in the polls ahead of possible new elections.
In any case, it will be necessary to appoint a new “transitional” chancellor, a position for which the former head of Government, Sebastian Kurz, has already been nominated. However, he is not interested in returning to the position after Nehammer’s departure, as confirmed by sources close to him to the DPA agency. Although the former chancellor led a coalition with the FPO between 2017 and 2019, He is currently satisfied with his role as an entrepreneur.
The OVP leadership is meeting this Sunday from 10:00 in the morning to discuss the situation, according to the newspaper The press. According to information from the ORF, the FPO leadership has also met in Vienna and is awaiting future events.
Whatever happens, the party with the mandate to form a government will face the same economic challenge that led to the collapse of this Saturday’s talks: according to the European Commission, the next Government must save between 18,000 and 24,000 million euros, in a country that has been in recession for two years, where unemployment is increasing and its budget deficit currently stands at 3.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), above the 3 percent limit set by Brussels.
