Political uncertainty has begun in Austria after the surprise resignation of Chancellor Karl Nehammer at the weekend. This step is thought to lead to the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FP\u00d6) taking control of the government for the first time.<\/p>\n
Nehammer, a former military officer who became chancellor in 2021 after a political scandal forced Sebastian Kurz to resign, announced he would step down as leader of both the country and the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (\u00d6VP).<\/p>\n
In a short video statement late on Saturday, he said his resignation as chancellor would take effect in the coming days and promised an “orderly transition.”<\/p>\n
This decision, which comes after talks to form a tripartite centrist coalition collapsed on Friday, opens the door for the \u00d6VP to resume coalition talks with the FP\u00d6. Nehammer had opposed a coalition with the FP\u00d6, citing the “extremism” of its leader, Herbert Kickl.<\/p>\n
However, this view was not shared by everyone in the \u00d6VP. The party’s business wing, in particular, wants the next government to introduce more aggressive reforms to stimulate the economy, which is in its second year of recession.<\/p>\n
\u00d6VP officials signaled on Sunday that the party was ready for talks with the FP\u00d6, which won Austria’s general election in September with 29% of the vote.<\/p>\n
After the other four parties represented in parliament refused to negotiate with the FP\u00d6, the FP\u00d6’s victory was seen as a Pyrrhic victory until Sunday.<\/p>\n
“We are not responsible for the lost time, the chaos, and the enormous loss of trust that has been created here,” Kickl said late on Sunday. “On the contrary, it is clear that the FP\u00d6 has been and continues to be the only stable factor in Austria’s domestic politics,” he added.<\/p>\n
A coalition between the FP\u00d6 and the \u00d6VP, which finished second in the September elections with 26% of the vote, would have a large majority in parliament.<\/p>\n
The only question now is whether Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, who has the power to reject chancellor candidates, will accept Kickl as chancellor.<\/p>\n
Theoretically, the FP\u00d6 could field a less controversial candidate, but Kickl has made it clear that he wants the job.<\/p>\n
If the FP\u00d6 and the \u00d6VP agree to form a government and appoint Kickl as chancellor, Van der Bellen can use his veto, but this would plunge the country into a constitutional crisis.<\/p>\n
Such an outcome would probably only increase the popularity of the FP\u00d6. In the latest opinion polls, the party is polling at 37%, which means that if Van der Bellen calls for a new election, the FP\u00d6 would be even stronger.<\/p>\n
In November, the party won an important regional election in Styria with 35% of the vote and took control of the province for the first time.<\/p>\n
Van der Bellen is therefore more likely to take this in stride. He acknowledged this in a statement on Sunday and said he had planned a meeting with Kickl for Monday “to discuss the new situation.”<\/p>\n
Kickl, who campaigned on the promise of becoming Volkskanzler<\/em> (People’s Chancellor) and turning Austria into a “fortress” against immigration, is known for his harsh comments about foreigners and Islam.<\/p>\n As interior minister in 2018, for example, the FP\u00d6 leader proposed the idea of “rounding up” refugees in special centers and ordered the refugee registration centers to be renamed “removal centers.”<\/p>\n Van der Bellen, former leader of the Austrian Green Party, has made no secret of his displeasure with Kickl and his party, which has sharply criticized the EU and even flirted with taking Austria out of the bloc.<\/p>\n After the elections in September, the President of the Republic broke with tradition and chose not to give Kickl, the leader of the strongest party, the task of forming a coalition.<\/p>\n The rise of the FP\u00d6, founded in the 1950s by a group of former Nazis who seem to have not given up on their ideas, will be the culmination of decades of evolution.<\/p>\n The party first came to international attention in the 1990s under J\u00f6rg Haider, who used the issue of immigration from the former Yugoslavia to mobilize voters and challenge the mainstream. By 1999, Haider had built up a strong following that propelled his party to second place in the national elections.<\/p>\n The FP\u00d6 continued to enter coalitions as a junior partner of the \u00d6VP. The centre-right’s decision to link arms with the FP\u00d6 was so controversial at the time that it led other members of the EU to impose “diplomatic sanctions” on Vienna. This was a symbolic gesture, which in practice meant a halt to bilateral visits.<\/p>\n An FP\u00d6-led government would be a turning point for Austria, a country whose national politics has been dominated by “centre” parties since the Second World War.<\/p>\n The second FP\u00d6-\u00d6VP coalition, formed in 2017 under the leadership of Sebastian Kurz, collapsed dramatically after the “Ibiza affair.”<\/p>\n The government collapsed 18 months after the publication of a secretly filmed video showing then FP\u00d6 leader and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache trying to do political favors for money to a woman he believed to be the niece of a Russian oligarch.<\/p>\n The footage, several hours long, was shot at a private villa on the island of Ibiza, where Strache was holidaying in the months before taking office.<\/p>\n The investigations that have been ongoing since then have preoccupied the Austrian justice system and played a central role in Kurz’s departure from office.<\/p>\n It remains to be seen whether former Chancellor Kurz will return to Austrian politics after his dramatic fall from grace.<\/p>\n Last February, an Austrian court found Kurz guilty of making false statements to a parliamentary commission of inquiry.<\/p>\n Judge Michael Radasztics gave the 37-year-old Kurz an eight-month suspended prison sentence for the serious offense of deceiving parliament under oath during the 2020 investigation into his government.<\/p>\n Since his resignation as chancellor, Kurz has been a consultant for Silicon Valley investor and Palantir founder Peter Thiel.<\/p>\n Kurz also founded a cybersecurity firm in Israel together with Shalev Hulio, co-founder of the company behind the Pegasus spyware.<\/p>\n On the other hand, according to Paul Ronzheimer, deputy editor-in-chief of Bild<\/em> and Kurz’s biographer, Kurz does not want to return to the party, despite rumors that the \u00d6VP has made him an offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Political uncertainty has begun in Austria after the surprise resignation of Chancellor Karl Nehammer at the weekend. This step is thought to lead to the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FP\u00d6) taking control of the government for the first time. Nehammer, a former military officer who became chancellor in 2021 after a political scandal forced Sebastian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4601,4602,4598,4608,4609,4599,4600,4606,4605,4603,4604,4607],"class_list":["post-7108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-alexander-van-der-bellen","tag-austrian-freedom-party","tag-chancellor-nehammer-resignation","tag-constitutional-crisis-austria","tag-far-right-politics-austria","tag-fpo-coalition","tag-herbert-kickl","tag-ibiza-scandal","tag-immigration-policies-austria","tag-ovp","tag-political-uncertainty-in-austria","tag-sebastian-kurz"],"yoast_head":"\n