Herbert Kickl, leader of Austria’s anti-immigrant Freedom Party (FPÖ), has a chance to become Austria’s new chancellor and its first far-right leader since the end of World War II.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen met with Kickl in Vienna on Monday morning and gave him the task of forming the new government, after coalition talks between mainstream parties collapsed late last week after the liberal NEOS quit negotiations.
“Mr. Kickl has the confidence … to find viable solutions,” Van der Bellen said after the meeting. “I have therefore instructed him to initiate talks with the [conservative] ÖVP to start government negotiations.”
On Saturday, conservative Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced his resignation, saying that “no agreement” was possible with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) “on key points” toward forming a government.
On Sunday, the new leader of Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), Christian Stocker, said that the ÖVP would “not refuse talks with the FPÖ.”
The anti-immigrant and Russia-friendly FPÖ, which was founded by former Nazis in 1956, won the most seats in the National Assembly in September’s elections, but was initially blocked from forming a government with all other major parties refusing to work with it.
But that initial hard line, at least on the right of Austria’s political spectrum, now appears to be softening.
This story is being updated.
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