Austria’s chancellor to resign as coalition talks fail

Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer says he will resign in the coming days, both as chancellor and party leader, after talks on forming a coalition government collapsed.

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

The 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 Austrian general electionbut the other parties ruled out forming a coalition with the leader of the FPÖ, Herbert Kickl.

The failure of the talks could lead the conservatives to negotiate with the extreme right or to hold new elections, according to analysts.

The Russia-friendly FPÖ has been in a governing coalition before. Would probably welcome new elections opinion polls suggest Its popularity has increased even more since September.

The FPÖ said in a statement in X that three months have been lost in coalition talks and adds that “instead of stability, we have chaos.

The party has called for the resignation of Social Democratic leader Andreas Babler and has stated that president Alexander Van der Bellen bears “a significant part of the responsibility for the chaos that has arisen and the time lost.”

In the September elections, the FPÖ won almost 29% of the vote, the People’s Party came 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 a failing economy and the war in Ukraine.

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

The party wants firm rules on legal immigration and has promoted the idea of ​​remigration, which involves sending asylum seekers to their home countries.

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

Two days before 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 any link to “National Socialist sentiments”.