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The leader of the Austrian Freedom Party received a mandate on Monday to form a new government, which if successful would be the first led by the extreme right since the Second World War.
The Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl, won Austria’s parliamentary elections in September, taking 28.8 percent of the vote and beating outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party into second place.
But in October, President Alexander Van der Bellen gave Nehammer the first chance to form a new government, after Nehammer’s party said it would not go into government with the Freedom Party under Kickl and others refused to join the Freedom Party altogether. working Those efforts to form a governing alliance without the extreme right collapsed in the first days of the new year and Nehammer said on Saturday that he would resign.
The People’s Party then signaled that it might be open to work under Kickl. Van der Bellen said after a meeting with Kickl in the presidential palace on Monday, that he had instructed the leader of the Freedom Party to consult with the People’s Party to form a new government.
“I did not take this step lightly,” the president told reporters. “I will continue to ensure that the principles and rules of our constitution are correctly respected and adhered to.”
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The extreme right and the conservatives have previously governed together, but on previous occasions with the Freedom Party as a junior partner. Most recently, they ran Austria from 2017 to 2019 in a government in which Kickl – a 56-year-old with a taste for provocation – served as interior minister. It collapsed in a scandal around the leader of the Freedom Party at that time.
Coalition talks between the far right and conservatives are not guaranteed to succeed, but there are no other realistic options left in the current parliament and polls suggest a new election could soon further strengthen the Freedom Party.
In its election program entitled “Fortress Austria”, the Freedom Party called for the “remigration of uninvited foreigners,” for the achievement of a more “homogeneous” nation through tight control of borders and suspension of the right to asylum through an emergency law.
The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is very critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to withdraw from the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defense project launched by Germany. Kickl has criticized “elites” in Brussels and called for some powers to be returned from the European Union to Austria.
Van der Bellen stated that the new government does not face an easy task.
“The economic environment is difficult. Austria is in an ongoing recession, unemployment is increasing; at the same time, our state budget must be restructured,” he said. “It is unlikely that all measures will be popular, but they must be implemented.”
He also pointed to the geopolitical threats to Austria, especially as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and pointed to the importance of “constructively strengthening European cooperation in the Union, also in the interest of Austrian industry and exporters. “
And the head of state, a liberal who originally comes from the environmentally friendly Greens, said that he and Kickl had discussed media freedom in Austria at length.
Kickl is sure of finding “viable solutions” in coalition talks, “and he wants this responsibility,” the president said.
Kickl walked past reporters without comment as he left the meeting.
& copy 2025 The Canadian Press
