The president of Austria on Monday gave Herbert Kickl, the outspoken leader of the Alpine country’s far-right Freedom Party, the task of trying to form a government coalition, three months after the party won the most votes in a general election.
“Mr. Kickl is confident that he can find viable solutions in the context of government negotiations, and he wants this responsibility,” President Alexander Van der Bellen said during a five-minute speech after meeting with Mr. Kickl.
The president’s request starts a process that could make Mr. Kickl, an anti-immigrant firebrand who has vowed to make the country a “fortress,” Austria’s first far-right chancellor later this year.
What led to this?
The Freedom Party finished first in the Sept. 29 election, with nearly 30 percent of the vote, but was well short of a majority. Despite the victory at the ballot box, it initially looked as if the party, founded by ex-Nazis in the 1950s, would not be part of the new government because mainstream parties refused to work with Mr. Kickl, whom they called a danger to democracy.
Karl Nehammer, the chancellor and head of the conservative Austrian People’s Party, which finished in second place with 26.5 percent, was tasked first by President Van der Bellen with trying to form a government. Chancellor Nehammer reached out to the center-left Social Democrats and the upstart Neos party to try to reach an agreement for a coalition government. But they were unable to bridge their differences over core budget issues, and late last week, first Neos, then the Social Democrats pulled out of the talks.
On Saturday, Mr. Nehammer announced he was resigning both as chancellor and party leader. His hastily elected replacement as party leader, Christian Stocker, then announced that — despite promises made during the campaign — the People’s Party, known as the ÖVP, would be open to coalition talks with the Freedom Party.
What is the Freedom Party?
The party was founded not long after World War II by former members of the SS, the Nazi paramilitary police. The party introduces Mr. Kickl using the word “Volkskanzler,” German for people’s chancellor, before campaign speeches, which evokes the rise of German fascism and Adolf Hitler.
It has a history of denigrating migrants in Austria as criminals and welfare sponges. Under a banner of “Fortress Austria,” Mr. Kickl has called for a temporary halt to accepting new asylum seekers and for a law that would ban them from becoming Austrian citizens.
The party is also close to Moscow — it signed a cooperation contract with President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party in 2016 — and is against aid to Ukraine to support its defense against Russia’s invasion. It also has opposed sanctions on Russia. Citing the country’s constitutional neutrality, the party is also against Austria joining NATO.
The party has been in the national government five times already, but always as a relatively weak junior partner. Mr. Kickl was the minister of the interior from 2017 until 2019, when a scandal involving one of Mr. Kickl’s predecessors as party leader forced the conservative chancellor at the time to end that coalition. The party has also been in coalition at the state level with the conservatives.
What are the possible outcomes for Austria’s government?
Although the conservatives and the Freedom Party differ on some key points, like their views on Russia’s war in Ukraine, they overlap on many other points. Experts believe a coalition agreement — which lays out a government’s intended program — between the two right-wing parties will be easier to hammer out than the previous attempt with parties from across the political spectrum. Such talks usually take weeks or even months in Austria.
Mr. Kickl has since the election insisted that he should lead the government. Since the Freedom Party has the most seats in the 183-seat Parliament — 57 to 51 for the conservatives — he has a good claim to being named chancellor.
If the parties cannot find common ground, the president would have to call new elections, because no other combination of parties could add up to a majority. A new vote so soon would be extremely rare for Austria.
Why is it important?
Mr. Kickl would become the first far-right chancellor in Austria since the end of World War II. While voters in many European countries have drifted to the right, few leaders have been as outspoken against immigrants and foreigners as he has, which is certain to raise tensions among Austria’s partners in the European Union. (Since becoming Italy’s prime minister in 2022, Giorgia Meloni has distanced herself from her hard-right past, aligning with the Western mainstream on key international issues. By contrast, Prime Minister Victor Orban of Hungary — who visited Vienna last year at the invitation of the Freedom Party — has been at odds with his fellow European Union leaders for years over his right-wing nationalist stances.)
Although Austria only has 9.1 million citizens, its position near the geographical center of the E.U. and its trade relations, especially with Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy, gives the country an outsized importance.
What has the reaction been?
Several hundred people protested in front of the Hofburg, the presidential palace in central Vienna, as Mr. Van der Bellen and Mr. Kickl met on Monday. They held signs that warned about right-wing extremism and chanted, “Never again Volkskanzler.”
Muslim and Jewish groups expressed their concern after the national election in September. Oskar Deutsch, the president of the Jewish Community in Vienna, said then that the success of the Freedom Party felt “threatening” to many in his community.
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