Negotiations for the formation of a three-party government in Austria have stalled. The liberal Neos has withdrawn from talks with the conservative ÖVP and the social democratic SPÖ.
ÖVP leader Chancellor Niehammer then said that he would resign soon. In the meantime, President von der Bellen has asked the recent election winner FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl to form a new government. This has put Austrian politics in an extremely uncertain situation.
The Neos liberals said last weekend that the two traditional parties were unwilling to make enough concessions and wanted to continue as much as possible on the old path. The ÖVP claim that the social democrats want to make too drastic cuts, and they in turn say that the conservatives are unwilling to clean up the mess enough.
In the parliamentary elections in September, the far-right Freedom Party achieved a historic victory with 29% of the votes, followed by the conservative ÖVP (26%), and the social democratic SPÖ (21%). The liberal Neos and the Greens obtained considerably smaller percentages.
All parties refused (so far?) to cooperate with the right-wing extremist pro-Nazi and pro-Putin party FPÖ. President Alexander Van der Bellen had therefore instructed ÖVP and SPÖ to form a coalition together. In order to achieve a workable majority, they brought in the liberal Neos as a third party. These negotiations began in November 2024, but were difficult from the start.
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