Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen announced on Sunday that he would meet with far-right politician Herbert Kickle, amid growing speculation that he would ask the Freedom Party leader to form a government.
Prime Minister Van der Bellen made the announcement after meeting with Prime Minister Karl Nehammer and others at the presidential palace. Nehamel announced his intention to resign after coalition talks between his conservative Austrian People's Party and the centre-left Social Democratic Party collapsed over the budget.
Nehammer has ruled out working with Kickl, but other members of the party are less adamant. The People's Party named General Secretary Christian Stocker as interim leader early Sunday, but the president said Nehammer would remain prime minister for now.
After several hours of talks with key leaders, van der Bellen said he got the impression that “the voices within the People's Party that rule out cooperation with leader Herbert Kickle's Liberal Party have become quieter.”
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The president said the development “could open up new avenues” and invited Mr. Kickel to a meeting on Monday morning.
In the autumn national elections, Kickl's Freedom Party came in first with 29.2% of the vote, but as there were no other parties to cooperate with Kickl, van der Bellen tasked Nehammer with forming a new government.
The decision drew heavy criticism from the Liberal Party and its supporters, with Mr Kickl saying in October that it was “not right and illogical” that he was denied the mandate to form a government.
“We do not accept responsibility for the wasted time, the chaotic situation and the gross breach of trust that has been revealed,” Kickle said on social media Sunday afternoon. “On the contrary, it is clear that the Freedom Party has been and will continue to be the only stable element in Austrian politics.”
Exterior of the Austrian People's Party headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, January 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Heinz Peter Bader)
Addressing reporters on Sunday afternoon, Stocker confirmed that he had been “unanimously” appointed interim leader by his party. “I'm very honored and happy,” he said.
He also welcomed the president's decision to meet with Mr Kickle and said he expected the leader of the party that was the clear winner in the last election to take on the task of forming a government.
“If we are invited to negotiate a government, we will accept this invitation,” Stocker added.
Stocker has criticized Kickle in the past, calling him a “security risk” to the country.
The Freedom Party's campaign plan, titled “Fortress Austria,'' aims to create a more “homogeneous'' nation by strictly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum through emergency legislation. calls for emigration.
The Liberal Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine, and wants to reject participation from the European Skyshield initiative, a missile defense project launched by Germany. That's what I think. The Liberal Party also signed a friendship pact with President Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party in 2016, but it says that pact has now expired.
Kickle criticized the “elites” in Brussels and called for some power to be transferred from the European Union back to Austria.
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Austria was plunged into political turmoil on Friday after the liberal party Neos withdrew from coalition talks with the People's Party and the Social Democratic Party. On Saturday, the two remaining parties, which have just a one-seat majority in parliament, tried again to form a government, but this also failed after hours, with negotiators saying they could not agree on how to repair the government. . fiscal deficit.
