The People’s Party ÖVP announced this Wednesday that it has accepted the invitation of the far-right Liberal Party FPÖ, winner of the elections on 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 to the FPÖ of power.
It is not the only political movement that has occurred in Austria in recent hours. The Austrian Foreign Minister, Alexander Schallenberg, was appointed this Wednesday as the country’s interim chancellor after the resignation of Karl Nehammer, leader of the Austrian People’s Party (OVP), which led to the breakdown of negotiations to form a government. coalition with the social democrats.
Schallenberg, new interim chancellor
“We are pleased to confirm that Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg has been entrusted with the continuation of the administration of the Federal Chancellery and the presidency of the interim federal government,” said a spokesperson for the Austrian Presidency in statements to Europa Press.
Thus, he has indicated that he is scheduled to be sworn in before the president of the country, Alexander van der Bellen, in a ceremony scheduled for this Friday, January 10, at 11:00 (local time). The OVP politician was already chancellor in 2021 after Sebastian Kurz presented his resignation in the midst of an open crisis due to corruption accusations against the Government.
Schallenberg, who will continue to head the Foreign Ministry simultaneously, will remain at the head of the country until talks to form a government are completed. The president of Austria entrusted the leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Herbert Kickl, with the task of forming an Executive after the collapse of tripartite negotiations between conservatives, social democrats and centrists.
Kickl, 55, was already Minister of the Interior between 2017 and 2019 in a government led by the OVP that was blown up due to the well-known ‘Ibiza case’, a corruption scandal detected when the FPO was part of the government coalition. of former chancellor Kurz.
