Negotiations on a new government coalition between the Ultra -Right Party FPö and the conservative Popular Party ÖVP failed on Wednesday to disagreements on European policy and the distribution of ministerial portfolios.
The FPö, winner of the general elections of September, and the ÖVP had been negotiating since the beginning of January, when the conservatives failed in their attempt to form a tripartite with the Social Democratic Party and the Neos Liberals.
After a meeting with the federal president, Alexander Van Der Bellen, the FPö leader, Herbert Kickl, returned the commission to form a government, according to the Austrian press.
“Although in the subsequent conversations we made concessions to the ÖVP at many points, in the end the negotiations were not crowned by success, very much to our regret,” said the ultra -right -wing leader in the letter to the head of the state in which he has returned the commission of training executive.
The president also announced that he will begin a new round of contacts with political leaders, whom he asked to “finally find solutions.” The Head of the State indicated that, given the current situation, with two failed negotiations from the elections, there are four possible scenarios: early elections, a minority government, an interim expert executive or a coalition between several formations.
Failure for the “desire for power” of the ultras
In that note, Kickl also ruled out any possibility of negotiation with the social democrats, who were third in the elections after the FPö and the ÖVP, and have ruled out governing with the ultras. “Austria can’t waste more time,” Kickl culminated his message.
The FPö has asked for the rapid call for early elections. Kickl argued that “clear conditions to have a clear direction” are needed and recalled that 136 days have passed since the elections that the FPö won with almost 29% of the votes.
From the Austrian Popular Party it has been ensured that negotiation has failed “due to the desire for power and the lack of commitment of Herbert Kickl.”
Different analysts and media have pointed out that differences in foreign policy and the distribution of key ministries such as interior and finance are the reasons that have ended up dynamiting contacts between the two parties, which have already ruled together three times in recent 25 years.
“Who is not willing to get to consensus and only gets carried away by the desire for power is not able to govern,” said one of the main negotiators of the ÖVP, Harald Mahrer.
Herbert Kickl, leader of the FPö, had been insisting that his formation should assume the interior portfolio arguing that his promises on the protection of borders and the fight against illegal immigration so require.
The Ultra leader was Minister of the Interior between 2017 and 2019 in a coalition with the conservatives and introduced changes in the Austrian Intelligence Service that led foreign agencies to stop collaborating with Austria due to the closeness of Kickl to Russia.
The award of finance, which the ÖVP has been controlling since 2004, has been another reason for dispute to the insistence of the ultras in assuming that portfolio to promote more protectionist fiscal policies.
Very different were also the positions in relation to the European Union, before Kickl’s Eurocritical positions and its refusal to clearly condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The FPö openly rejects the primacy of European law over the National and proposes to eliminate asylum right.
In addition, the ÖVP insists on adopting measures against misinformation, a point that, according to negotiation documents filtered to the press last weekend, caused great differences due to the criticism of the FPö to the traditional media.
Social democrats propose to negotiate the government
The Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPö) assured that it is willing to support an expert government or negotiate with other formations, after the contacts between the ultra -rightists and the democristians to form new executive.
“Let’s sit together. Let’s look for solutions. For our country to advance again, ”the party leader, Andreas Baller, raised on the social network.
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