Austria’s centrist Neos party has quit trilateral coalition talks with two larger centrist parties, including Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative People’s Party (ÖVP).
Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger said she informed Nehammer, Social Democratic leader Andreas Babler and President Alexander Van der Bellen on Friday that the party “won’t continue” the talks.
The collapse of the monthslong talks, ongoing since November, cast doubt on Nehammer’s ability to form a new coalition government.
The ÖVP failed to secure a majority in the September election last year and was outperformed by the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), which won the election with some 29% of the votes.
Talks between the ÖVP, the Neos and the center-left Social Democrats (SPÖ) kicked off, after no parties wanted to work with the far right FPÖ.
What did the Neos say about quitting the talks?
Neos leader Meinl-Reisinger said it was evident that there was no will for much urgently needed reform, pointing in particular to the implications of a “budget” hole left by the last government as a major sticking point.
She added that despite the desire for change reflected in the last elections, the talks appeared to be moving backward rather than forward.
“There was a repeated ‘no’ to fundamental reforms this week,” Meinl-Reisinger told reporters in Vienna on Friday.
Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) General Secretary Christian Stocker meanwhile blamed “backward-looking forces” among the Social Democrats for prompting the collapse of the talks.
“The behavior of some within the SPÖ has led to the current situation. While parts of social democracy have been constructive, in recent days, the backward-looking forces within the SPÖ have gained the upper hand,” he said.
What happens next?
It remains to be seen whether the ÖVP and SPÖ will continue with the coalition talks on their own, or if new elections would be called for.
Meinl-Reisinger said that her party was still willing to support in parliament projects that had already been agreed on in the talks. This suggests that a shaky coalition between just the ÖVP and SPÖ is on the table.
Since the September vote, recent surveys suggest that the far-right FPÖ has garnered even more support, hinting at an even larger victory should new elections be held.
The eurosceptic, Russia-friendly party had slammed the talks as undemocratic, saying they were seeking to create a “coalition of losers.”
rmt/wd (AP, dpa, Reuters)
