Austria’s chancellor will leave after coalition talks collapse

Austrian Chancellor Karl Neuhammer says he will resign in the coming days as both chancellor and party leader after talks to form a coalition government broke down.

The chancellor said his party – the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) – and the Social Democrats had failed to agree on key issues.

Liberal Neos, another party involved in the talks, also withdrew on Friday.

In September, the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) won an unprecedented victory in the general election in Austriabut the other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with FPÖ leader Herbert Kickle.

The failure of the talks could lead to talks between the conservatives and the far right or new elections, analysts say.

The Russia-friendly FPÖ has been in a governing coalition before. He will probably welcome new choices like public opinion polls show its popularity has grown further since September.

FPÖ X said in a statement that three months have been lost since the coalition negotiations and adds that “instead of stability we have chaos”.

The party called on Social Democrat leader Andreas Babler to also resign and said President Alexander Van der Bellen bears “a significant part of the responsibility for the chaos that has ensued and for the time that has been lost”.

The FPÖ won almost 29% of the vote in September’s election, the People’s Party second with 26.3% and the Social Democrats third with 21%.

There was a high turnout of 77.3% as Austrian voters took part in an election dominated by the twin issues of migration and asylum, as well as the stalled economy and the war in Ukraine.

FPÖ’s Kickl promised to build “Fortress Austria” to restore security and prosperity to Austrians.

The party wants tough rules on legal immigration and promotes the idea of ​​re-emigration, which involves sending asylum seekers to their countries of origin.

The FPÖ was founded by former Nazis in the 1950s.

Two days before voting in last year’s general election, some of its candidates were caught on video at a funeral where an SS song was sung.

The party later denied that the song, which dates back to 1814, had anything to do with “National Socialist sentiments”.