Austria’s president has said he will meet the leader of the country’s far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), amid speculation that the pro-Kremlin, anti-Islam party will be tasked with trying to form a government after centrist parties failed to find agreement.
The Alpine country of 9 million has been plunged into political crisis after the collapse of coalition talks aimed at keeping the far right out of government. On Sunday it appeared the FPÖ – narrowly the most voted-for party in September’s parliamentary elections – would be most likely to benefit from the turmoil.
It would be a turn of fortune for the party, which had seemed poised to be kept out of power after the mainstream parties, including Austria’s People’s party, refused to back a government led by the FPÖ’s leader, Herbert Kickl, who during the election routinely peppered his speeches with Nazi rhetoric, railed against migrants with slogans such as “Fortress Austria” and “Austria First”, and had been previously ousted as a hardline interior minister.
Austria’s president, Alexander van der Bellen, on Sunday said he had spent several hours speaking to officials and had emerged with the impression that “the voices within the People’s party who exclude working with the Freedom party under its leader Herbert Kickl have become quieter.”
This development meant “that a new path may be opening up that did not exist before,” he added, noting that he would meet Kickl on Monday morning.
Kickl, who cites Hungary’s autocratic leader, Viktor Orbán, as a role model, has previously said his party would only join a government if he were chancellor.
He has long courted controversy and campaigned on a slogan to become “Volkskanzler” (people’s chancellor), a term once used for Adolf Hitler.
The FPÖ, founded in the 1950s and first led by a former senior SS officer and Nazi lawmaker, has promoted the idea of “remigration” – forced deportation – of immigrants and foreign-born citizens. It has also called for a stop to western support for Ukraine’s defence against Russia and to EU sanctions against Moscow.
In its most-recent election programme, titled “Fortress Austria”, it called on Austria to become a more “homogeneous” nation through tightly controlled borders and the suspension of the right to asylum via an emergency law.
The country’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, had long insisted that his centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) would not support a government with Kickl as chancellor, describing him as a security risk and conspiracy theorist.
Following the collapse of talks between his party and the centre-left Social Democrats, Nehammer announced his intention to resign, potentially paving a path for his party to enter into a coalition with the FPÖ under new leadership. The two parties overlap on various issues, including a hard line on immigration, to the extent that the FPÖ has accused the ÖVP of stealing its ideas.
While the ÖVP has previously governed with the FPÖ as junior partners several times and continues to govern with them in five of Austria’s nine states, any alliance this time would probably force the conservatives to play a more junior role.
The FPÖ seemingly reinforced this on Sunday. “Austria needs a Chancellor Kickl now,” the far-right party wrote on social media.
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The ÖVP announced on Sunday that it had nominated its general secretary, Christian Stocker, to act as interim leader after Nehammer’s announced resignation. The country’s president said Nehammer would remain chancellor for now.
Speaking to reporters soon after, Stocker, who in the past has described Kickl as a “security risk” for Austria, said his party was preparing to enter into coalition talks with the far right.
“I expect that the leader of the party with the most votes will be tasked with forming a future government. If we are invited to these (coalition) talks, we will accept this invitation,” said Stocker.
Stocker said on Sunday that his party had given him their backing to enter the talks.
“It is therefore not about Herbert Kickl or me, but about the fact that this country needs a stable government right now and that we cannot keep losing time in election campaigns or elections,” he said.
