Austria’s conservative governor Karl Nehammer announced on Saturday that he would move down in the” getting time” following the end of coalition discussions with the Social Democrats over important issues.
Nehammer made the announcements via a digital message and accompanying statement that were posted on the X system.
” After the break-off of the coalition conversations I am going to do the following: I will step over both as president and group president of the Women’s Party in the coming weeks and allow an orderly transition”, he said.
The surprise decision comes just one moment after Austria’s progressive party withdrew from three-party coalition negotiations to form a moderate state. The aim had been to sideline the far-right Freedom Party ( FPOe ), which won the September 29 national elections.
Despite having no companions to form a federal government, the FPOe received 28.8 % of the vote.
The conservative People’s Party ( OeVP ) came second with 26.3 per cent, while the centre-left Social Democrats ( SPOe ) won 21.1 per cent.
That resulted in Nehammer holding discussions with the SPOe and the progressive group NEOS to form a government to outlaw the extreme right, but those three-way discussions ended on Friday.
The two remaining moderate parties had vowed to carry on their job.
But a day later, on Saturday, Nehammer announced on X that “agreement with the SPOe is certainly feasible on key issues.
” We are thus ending agreements with the SPOe,” Nehammer added.
On Friday, President Alexander Van de Bellen had called on the two parties to form a state” without delay”.
A three-party regulating coalition in Austria, which is dealing with a sluggish market as well as a soaring budget deficit, would have been a primary since 1949.
Nehammer had previously warned that the partnership negotiations, which started in October without the liberals, may be difficult.
