Vienna, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 8th Jan, 2025) Austria’s far right, tasked for the first time with trying to form a government, warned on Tuesday of a “difficult” mission as relations with the conservatives are tense.
The Freedom Party (FPOe) topped national elections in September for the first time ever.
But they found themselves without partners to govern, until this weekend when the election runner-up conservatives said their negotiations with other parties had failed and, in an about-turn, said they were ready to negotiate with the FPOe.
The FPOe’s radical leader Herbert Kickl promised to open a “new era” of “normality, common sense and healthy patriotism” without “low blows”.
– How strong is the FPOe’s position? –
Kickl said negotiations with the conservative People’s Party (OeVP) would be a “litmus test”.
“No games, no tricks, no sabotage, no obstructionism and no politics for the sake of maintaining power… if that is not guaranteed… then there will be new elections, we are prepared for that,” he said.
The party currently scores more than 35 percent in opinion polls, up from the almost 29 percent they won in the September election.
Meanwhile, the conservatives are “in a very bad position” after their efforts to form a government without the FPOe failed, political scientist Thomas Hofer told AFP.
Over the weekend, conservative Karl Nehammer — a sharp critic of Kickl — announced he was resigning from the chancellorship and as OeVP chief as government talks fell apart.
Slumping in the polls, the OeVP “cannot afford” for people to return to the ballot boxes, according to Hofer.
So OeVP interim leader Christian Stocker “probably” will become the first vice chancellor of a government dominated by the far right in the Alpine EU member, he said.
Bringing back former chancellor Sebastian Kurz, as demanded by some close to the party, could give the conservatives a boost.
But “Herbert Kickl and he are both stars” and “not directly compatible,” Patrick Moreau, Austria specialist at France’s CNRS institute, told AFP.
So while Kurz is unlikely to negotiate for a government under Kickl, he could come back to lead the OeVP should an FPOe-led government fail and fresh elections be called, according to both experts.
