Austria’s conservative chancellor party ÖVP has broken off coalition negotiations with the social democratic SPÖ. It was only on Friday that the liberal Neos withdrew from talks with the two parties about forming a new government. The two remaining parties then continued talks on Saturday afternoon. However, the discussions had already come to an end in the evening. This makes new elections in Austria more likely.
The SPÖ and ÖVP were unable to find each other in various areas. The SPÖ demanded, among other things, that the deficit state budget should be restructured on the shoulders of richer sections of the population. The ÖVP was strictly against additional taxes. “An agreement is not possible on essential nuclear matters,” the party said.
The Austrian standard According to the coalition negotiations ultimately failed due to budget restructuring issues. Chancellor and ÖVP leader Karl Nehammer has decided that the SPÖ team will no longer have any further leeway for negotiations in terms of content from his party.
The SPÖ commented on X about the end of the talks. Until the end they were ready to “take responsibility for our republic in these difficult times”. But: “The ÖVP was not ready for that. She made it clear that Nehammer was not given any room for maneuver by his party.”
The negotiations between the center parties were also an attempt to keep the right-wing FPÖ from power after its election victory at the end of September. However, the ÖVP and SPÖ only had a narrow majority of one vote in parliament. If new elections actually take place, the FPÖ is likely to benefit the most.
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