Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he will resign after talks collapsed between the country’s two biggest centrist parties on forming a coalition government without the far-right Freedom Party.
Nehammer’s announcement on Saturday came a day after the liberal NEOS party quit the coalition negotiations, undermining efforts to block the rise of the far right. NEOS cited budget and competitiveness as sticking points with Nehammer’s center-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPÖ).
A day later, Nehammer threw in the towel.
“We have negotiated honestly and for a long time,” Nehammer said in a statement on X on Saturday. “No agreement is possible with the SPÖ on key points,” he added.
“The People’s Party stands by its promises: We will not agree to measures that are hostile to benefits and business, nor to new taxes,” Nehammer said. “We are therefore ending negotiations with the SPÖ,” he said.
“I will stand down as chancellor and as leader of the People’s Party in the coming days and enable an orderly transition,” Nehammer said.
The collapse of the talks, which formally started in November, will strengthen the hand of the anti-migrant, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPÖ), which surged to first place in September’s national election but has been blocked from forming a government, with all other major parties refusing to work with it.
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