{"id":418644,"date":"2025-02-12T19:03:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T18:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/12\/austria-kickl-stop-negoziati-fpo-ovp\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T22:31:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T21:31:34","slug":"austria-negotiations-to-form-a-government-fail-kickl-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/12\/austria-negotiations-to-form-a-government-fail-kickl-resigns\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria, negotiations to form a government fail. Kickl resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The black wave seems to be coming to a halt in Austria<\/b>, at least temporarily.\u00a0The leader of the ultra-right,\u00a0Herbert Kickl,<\/strong>\u00a0has put the mandate for the formation of an executive back into the hands of the president of the Republic after the\u00a0failure of negotiations with the conservatives<\/strong>, who had already tried\u2014unsuccessfully\u2014to find an agreement with other parties in the Vienna parliament.<\/span>\u00a0Now, the ball is back in the court of the head of state<\/b>, who may decide to convene new elections<\/b> (at the risk of further strengthening the Euroskeptic radical right).<\/p>\n

The failure of negotiations<\/h3>\n

No\u00a0luck\u00a0for Herbert Kickl,<\/strong> the head of the post-Nazi and pro-Russian far-right<\/strong> Austrian Freedom Party (FP\u00d6) that emerged victorious from the polls on 29 September in an unprecedented historic event<\/a>. Talks with the conservatives of the People’s Party (\u00d6VP) have ended in failure, yet again.<\/p>\n

Negotiations had been\u00a0stalled\u00a0<\/a>for<\/span>\u00a0days, but the final break<\/strong> came early this afternoon (Feb. 12). In the letter\u00a0putting back<\/a> into the hands of the President of the Republic Alexander Van der Bellen<\/strong> the mandate for government formation, Kickl expressed “great regret” over the sideways step of the \u00d6VP<\/strong>, who, according to his version,\u00a0would not be satisfied with the “concessions” made by the\u00a0FP\u00d6<\/strong> on the distribution<\/strong>\u00a0of the federal cabinet’s departments<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Herbert<\/a>
Kickl during an election rally (photo: Alex Halada\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to local media reconstructions, the Populars would not agree to leave the Interior<\/strong>, a key ministry for the management of the migration dossier<\/strong> (on which the\u00a0FP\u00d6 built its electoral fortune), to potential partners. Given the unwillingness of the other parties to govern with the far right<\/strong>, there was no alternative for Kickl but to throw in the towel.<\/p>\n

The \u00d6VP’s vitriolic accusations<\/h3>\n

But his version was immediately contested by the Christian Democrats<\/strong>. The chairman of the Vienna provincial branch of the \u00d6VP, Karl Mahrer<\/strong>, placed the responsibility\u00a0<\/strong>for the incident\u00a0on the leader of the FP\u00d6<\/strong>. “The race for power and Kickl’s extreme demands<\/strong> have made it impossible to form a government,” he vented in a lengthy video message posted on X, claiming that “the Kickl system is failing on its own<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Mahrer spared no personal attacks on the Radical Right leader: “Responsible government work is not possible with Herbert Kickl<\/strong>,” he said, as the latter would be “in a power frenzy<\/strong>” and would force his hand at the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

\n

Kickl’s rush for power and extreme demands have made it impossible to form a government – the Kickl system is failing on its own.<\/p>\n

The government negotiations have failed – and for good reason. No responsible government work is possible with Herbert Kickl… pic.twitter.com\/CDA2ZtdSQY<\/a><\/p>\n

– Karl Mahrer (@KarlMahrer) February 12, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In his view, the “red lines<\/strong>\u00a0that must not be crossed” by any political force aspiring to govern Austria are “the\u00a0clear commitment to the EU and our legal system<\/strong>, the protection of\u00a0media freedom<\/strong>, the\u00a0fight against anti-Semitism<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0trust in the international intelligence services<\/strong>.” These are principles that Kickl\u00a0 “demonstrated that he did not respect.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the lunge: the leader of the\u00a0FP\u00d6 “does not want a government, he wants absolute power”\u00a0<\/strong>and allegedly “tried to usurp European, constitutional and media agendas, as well as the security apparatus, thus endangering the democratic structures of our country<\/strong>.” “We gave Kickl a chance for political resocialization, but he did not take it,” Mahrer concluded, reiterating that his interlocutor “loves himself more than Austria<\/strong>” and has now become “a complete political failure<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

The post-election stalemate (and what happens now)<\/h3>\n

The previous attempt to create a three-way coalition<\/strong> between the \u00d6VP<\/strong> Christian Democrats, the Social Democratic Party (SP\u00d6<\/strong>) and the Neos liberals <\/strong>sank<\/a>\u00a0in early January. The stalemate in negotiations had led to the resignation of the then chancellor<\/strong>, the Popular Karl Nehammer<\/strong>, who had bet on the centrist alliance to exclude the FP\u00d6 from the government area<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At that point, a window of opportunity had opened for the ultranationalist, anti-migrant formation to severe<\/strong>\u00a0the cordon sanitaire<\/strong> that had relegated it to the margins of national politics since its inception (from the ashes of the SS) in 1956<\/strong>. It was an\u00a0opportunity to translate the nearly 29 per cent support it gained from the popular vote and its 57 deputies to the Nationalrat (the lower house of the Austrian legislature) into real power, bringing<\/strong>\u00a0Kickl to the chancellery<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Herbert<\/a>
Kickl is given the mandate to form a new government on 6 January 2025 (photo: Tobias Steinmaurer\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, on Jan. 6, the head of state\u00a0tasked<\/a>\u00a0the leader of the FP\u00d6 with\u00a0starting new negotiations<\/strong>\u00a0to set up\u00a0an executive with the \u00d6VP<\/strong>. The two parties had been\u00a0in government together before (in 2000 and 2017)<\/strong>, but for the first time,\u00a0the balance of power<\/strong>\u00a0would be reversed. Above all, the Populars made it clear that\u00a0they would not accept Kickl as Bundeskanzler<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>because he was deemed too controversial and polarizing a figure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, facing Van der Bellen are two alternatives to overcome\u00a0a moment of political uncertainty unprecedented<\/strong>\u00a0in duration in the recent history of the Central European country: retry the path of the\u00a0centrist coalition<\/strong>\u00a0or dissolve parliament and\u00a0call citizens back to the polls<\/strong>. However, polls show that\u00a0the only party to benefit would be the FP\u00d6<\/strong>\u00a0itself,\u00a0currently accredited<\/a>\u00a0with a\u00a0virtual 34 per cent<\/strong>\u00a0of support (not exactly what one would expect from a “political failure”).<\/span><\/p>\n

All this while, as it is happening in Germany<\/a> due to the flirtation between the CDU and the AFD<\/strong>, tens of thousands of citizens are manifesting<\/a> in Austria, too, to protest against the normalization of the<\/strong> post-Nazi and pro-Russian ultra-right<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The risk of the first far-right-led executive since World War II seems averted in Vienna. The FP\u00d6 leader has failed to find an agreement with potential \u00d6VP partners, and it is now up to the president of the Republic to find a way out of the impasse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":418641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26475,30125,26897,28344,30447,30122],"class_list":["post-418644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alexander-van-der-bellen-and","tag-austria-en","tag-fpo-en","tag-herber-kickl-en","tag-ovp-and"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418644"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418653,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418644\/revisions\/418653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}