Talks to form Austria's first far right-led government fail

VIENNA (AFP) — Austria’s Freedom Party ended coalition talks with the conservatives on Wednesday to form the country’s first far right-led government, in a spectacular turn of events following disagreements over key posts and issues like migration.

The Freedom Party, FPOe — which topped national polls for the first time ever in September — has been negotiating with the long-ruling conservative People’s Party, OeVP, since early January.

But cracks have appeared since last week, with radical Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl insisting his party wants to hold both the interior and finance ministries — demands the People’s Party has rejected.

“Although we made concessions to the OeVP on many points … we regret that the negotiations were ultimately unsuccessful,” Kickl said in a statement.

In turn the People’s Party said the talks “failed due to Herbert Kickl’s thirst for power and uncompromising attitude.”

Had they been successful the far right would have led the alpine EU nation’s government for the first time, though it has previously tasted power as a junior coalition partner.

Now that talks have failed, snap elections are likely, according to analysts, with the Freedom Party polling well ahead of its rivals.

Conservative-led efforts to rule without the Freedom Party following the September vote failed in early January and efforts to form a government hit a record length of time last week.

The previous record, set in the 1960s, was 129 days.

Russia as ’threat'

In a statement earlier on Wednesday the People’s Party said it wanted to have the interior brief, with asylum and migration issues moved into a separate new ministry.

The Freedom Party, in turn, rejected the People’s Party proposal as “fraught with numerous constitutional problems” and “doomed to failure.”

Protocols from the negotiations leaked over the weekend also showed numerous outstanding issues, including on EU policy and asylum-seeker treatment.

The People’s Party wanted the Freedom Party — which has slammed EU sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine — to clarify its position on Moscow, insisting a future government must see Russia “as threat,” according to a confidential document revealed by the media.

Kickl is known for his harsh attacks on his opponents, including calling Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen a “senile mummy.”

The Freedom Party leader has also caused controversy by calling himself the future “Volkskanzler” — the people’s chancellor — as Hitler was termed in the 1930s, though he has denied this is a Nazi reference.

‘Like Trump’

In its demands aired publicly on social media, the Freedom Party — led by Kickl since 2021 — went “all out, showing little willingness to compromise,” said political analyst Thomas Hofer.

“Kickl tries to approach it a bit like Trump, really wanting to fulfil his campaign promises one by one and work through them,” Hofer told AFP, adding the demands Kickl has put on the table “can never be accepted by the OeVP.”

Ahead of any potential snap election the Freedom Party stands at more than 35% in voter opinion polls — up from the almost 29% they gained in September.

The People’s Party, which came second with 26% in September, has slumped to some 18% and is now trailing in third place behind the Social Democrats in voter opinion polls.

“The OeVP is currently in anything but a good position,” Hofer said.

After the September polls the People’s Party tried to form a government with the Social Democrats and a smaller liberal party, the NEOS, but those talks collapsed in early January.

Both SPOe and NEOs this week said they were ready to talk to the People’s Party once again to prevent an Freedom Party-led government.

Tens of thousands have protested in Vienna against the negotiations, expressing fears an Freedom Party-led government would chip away at the rule of law, as well as minority and other rights.

The Freedom Party — founded by former Nazis in the 1950s — currently leads one regional government in Austria and rules four other provinces in coalition governments with the conservatives.

The last People’s Party-Freedom Party government on a national level was short-lived, collapsing after 1.5 years in 2019 after the Freedom Party’s then-leader was engulfed in a corruption scandal.

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By JULIA ZAPPEI Agence France-Presse