Austrian coalition talks collapse, chancellor to step down Reuters

VIENNA (Reuters) – Talks between Austria’s two biggest centrist parties to form a coalition government outside the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) have broken down, Chancellor Karl Nehmer said on Saturday and said he would step down in the coming days.

This announcement came after the third party, the minor liberal Neos, threw the process into disarray by saying that he would drop out of the talks because the other parties did not take the bold and decisive action that he said he had called for.

“In the coming days I will stand as chancellor and as leader of the (conservative) People’s Party and ensure an orderly transition,” Neuhammer said in a video statement on X after resuming coalition talks with the Social Democrats (SPO). Neos Saturday.

He won the last parliamentary elections in September with 29 percent of the vote. He needed a coalition partner to manage, and since Nehammer could not get along with FPO leader Herbert Kickle, no partner was immediately available.

Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen, who was the leader of the Green Party, therefore gave Nehmer the chance to form a government. Now that Nehmer has stepped down, the two options are that Kickel is tasked with forming a government or calling snap elections.

Support for the FPO has only grown since the last election. He holds a lead of more than 10 points over the People’s Party (OVP) and the SPO, according to pollsters.

SPO leader Andreas Baber confirmed at a news conference that the talks had broken down.

“We are now aware of the potential threat. An FPO-OVP government with a right-wing extremist chancellor will threaten our democracy on many fronts,” Baber said.