Vienna tries to allay Brussels’ fears over looming far-right government

Good morning. After last week’s madness, what do the people of Greenland actually think about Donald Trump’s annexation idea? Our correspondent in Nuuk heard incredulity, indignation — and interest.

Today, Austria’s stand-in chancellor tells my Brussels colleague that Vienna will remain a key EU player even if the far right is set to take charge of the country, and Poland’s defence minister tells our Warsaw correspondent what to expect from a gathering of Europe’s power players he’s hosting this afternoon.

Damage control

Austria’s caretaker chancellor Alexander Schallenberg is in Brussels today, aiming to assure EU chiefs that Vienna will remain a reliable partner even if its next government is led by a far-right politician with a penchant for Nazi slogans, writes Alice Hancock.

Context: Earlier this month, Austria’s centre-right chancellor Karl Nehammer stepped down after months-long coalition talks among centrist parties fell apart. That meant the far-right, pro-Russian Freedom party (FPÖ), which won most votes in September’s elections but had been sidelined from the negotiations, was asked to form the next government.

The country’s likely next leader, therefore, is the FPÖ’s Herbert Kickl, a divisive figure who has borrowed language from Austria’s dark Nazi past to boost his campaign.

Schallenberg, who served as foreign minister in the previous government, will meet European Council president António Costa and European parliament chief Roberta Metsola, as well as the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas. The aim? To assuage their concerns about an Austrian tilt further to the right and towards Russia, potentially hindering EU support for Ukraine and blocking sanctions against Moscow.

“The EU is a guarantor of peace and security for Austria,” Schallenberg told the Financial Times in advance of his visit. “This is firmly anchored in the consciousness of the Austrian people.”

“When it comes to foreign and security as well as European policy, one can rely on Austria,” Schallenberg added. “We will continue to actively and constructively engage on a European and international level. This is all the more important in volatile times.”

Schallenberg’s ÖVP is likely to be the junior partner in an FPÖ-led governing coalition, although he has excluded himself from taking part in the next government.

Kickl’s ascent comes at a critical time for Brussels as it seeks to maintain support for core policies such as fighting climate change and supporting Kyiv in its fight against Moscow, amid the rise of far-right parties fanned by foreign support, including from Russia and the US tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Slovakia’s Robert Fico has joined Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in showing an increasingly open attitude to co-operation with Moscow, while different shades of far-right parties are also governing in countries such as Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Chart du jour: Lacking confidence

What are European consumers waiting for? The ECB will need to see that its planned rate cuts are boosting household confidence, or the rate-setters may be forced to go further.

Deeper pockets

Poland’s defence minister is hosting his colleagues from four big European nations today, armed with new demands for them to spend more on defence and help appease US president-elect Donald Trump, writes Raphael Minder.

Context: Ahead of his return to the White House a week from today, Trump has raised the pressure on Nato by demanding a spending goal of 5 per cent of GDP. That’s more than double the current 2 per cent target, which only 23 of the alliance’s 32 members meet.

Polish defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz backed Trump’s target, saying in an interview with the FT that his country could become the “transatlantic link” between Trump’s proposal and its implementation in Europe.

Kosiniak-Kamysz plans to tell his counterparts from the UK, France, Germany and Italy that Trump’s spending goal should be praised rather than criticised “if we want to keep an American presence in Europe”. Ukraine’s defence minister will join the discussions remotely.

Even without pressure from Trump, European governments need to clearly confront their own shortcomings, he said. “I see countries that have made big efforts recently, but not everybody and not in southern Europe.”

This message hits particularly at Spain and Italy, the two big EU laggards on defence spending, even as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni counts herself among Trump’s favourites after visiting him recently at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

But there is also frustration in Warsaw over German opposition to funding defence through joint EU debt — an idea promoted by Poland — in addition to a bilateral feud over second world war reparations.

“The offers and proposals that Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz made were not acceptable: we look forward to this issue being taken more seriously,” said Kosiniak-Kamysz about the historic dispute.

What to watch today

1. Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte speaks at the European parliament.

2. Defence ministers of Poland, Germany, the UK, France and Italy meet near Warsaw.

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