Austria Set to Form New Establishment Government

After talks broke down between the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), a new deal is likely to be struck between the ÖVP, the left-wing SPÖ and the liberal Neos party, which have reportedly agreed upon the distribution of ministries.

Details are still being discussed but the most important ministries have reportedly been distributed, with some ÖVP ministers remaining in their positions.

The party leaders, Christian Stocker (ÖVP), Andreas Babler (SPÖ), and Beate Meinl-Reisinger (Neos) announced their intention to form a new government after meeting with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen in Hofburg, with Van der Bellen describing negotiations as already being at an advanced stage.

Christian Stocker of the ÖVP will serve as chancellor. The SPÖ will receive the justice ministry while the ÖVP will hold the ministries of the interior and defense. There is also an ongoing investigation into the ÖVP, which would have made any minister of justice from that party potentially problematic.

The SPÖ said that State Secretary Muna Duzdar and National Council member Selma Yildirim will be potential justice ministers. The federal president may also decide an independent candidate should be named, which could go to Judge Oliver Scheiber.

The Neos will receive the foreign ministry and be headed by party leader Meinl-Reisinger, with the party seen as extremely pro-EU.

Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) said he would not be part of the new government after previously serving as foreign minister. He also served as an interim chancellor until a new government was formed.

The economics ministerial brief will also go to the ÖVP, although there is no candidate yet named, while the Neos will receive the ministry of education.

The question now is whether the FPÖ made a historic mistake by walking away from negotiations, which could have led to party leader Herbert Kickl being named chancellor, or whether the decision will pay off over time.

The FPÖ released a statement: “After this first failure, the FPÖ was called in to draw up a plan to avert the EU deficit procedure, which threatens our sovereignty. After that, the ÖVP and Christian Stocker only held sham negotiations with the FPÖ, while at the same time continuing to tinker with the losing traffic light coalition in back rooms, just so that the ÖVP could continue to provide the chancellor despite being clearly voted out.

“So now we are seeing exactly what they started to unpack in the months before the election and what has literally destroyed the Federal Republic of Germany: a traffic light government made up of election losers, which acts in a way that is hostile to the economy, the location and the citizens, which continues the course of prosperity destruction, security chaos, and illegal mass immigration and ultimately makes the system the winner and the population the loser. With the FPÖ and Herbert Kickl it would have been exactly the other way round, then the population would have won,” said FPÖ General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz.

He also called for immediate new elections to avert this “fraud against the Austrians.”

Other FPÖ members claim that entering negotiations with the FPÖ was a ploy for some members to get rid of Karl Nehammer, who previously served in the ÖVP as chancellor and vowed never to work with the FPÖ.

“To accuse the Freedom Party and in particular the FPÖ federal party chairman Herbert Kickl of ‘voter fraud’ because he did not want to support… the ÖVP is quite a bold move. Kickl and the FPÖ negotiated for the people of our country and not against them. The People’s Party, on the other hand, is not looking for a government for Austria, but only for itself. Its driving force is self-interest, vanity, and the covering up and concealing of its own failures, which was clearly shown in the election result of the last National Council election,” said the general secretary, Christian Hafenecker.