Although there are no plans to form a government, FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl referred to his position as chairman of “the party with the highest number of votes and the clear election winner” in a broadcast. Therefore, he would “coordinate meetings with the leaders of the second-placed ÖVP and the third-placed SPÖ,” he said on Wednesday evening. As a reason for not taking this step before, he cited “a consideration of the practices that existed before previous government formations”.
The ÖVP said this evening that they “take the mandate of the Federal President seriously and are available for discussion.” They want to say more about Thursday.
debate
Which coalition is most likely?
“Of course we are complying with the order of the Federal President and we will have discussions with the leaders of other parties,” the SPÖ first announced via APA. SPÖ leader Andreas Tabler later confirmed
Avoid “empty kilometers”.
Van der Bellen announced Austria’s unusual path to finding a government shortly after midday in an eagerly awaited statement. As Van der Bellen explained, it was previously common practice in Austria to mandate the party with the most votes to form a government. This time, however, an “unusual situation” occurred. It is “completely new” that there is an election winner in the FPÖ, which none of the other parties elected to the National Council want to lead.
This understanding was confirmed after discussions with party leaders, Van der Bellen said. Kickl made it clear that the FPÖ could only participate in the government with him as chancellor. However, the ÖVP has so far ruled out cooperation with Kickl. Basically SPÖ, Greens and NEOS did not want to work with the FPÖ, said Van der Bellen, which posed the question: Who should the FPÖ investigate, let alone negotiate with?
“Extraordinary situation”
According to the President of the Federation Alexander Van der Bellen, Austria is dealing with an “extraordinary situation” after the National Council election, because none of the parties wants to form a coalition with the winner of the election. As far as the next steps in reaching a coalition government are concerned, the FPÖ, the ÖVP and the SPÖ should first ensure “clarity” in the discussion.
There is no official mandate set out in the constitution. Rather, the parties could search for majorities among themselves even without a government mandate and then offer them to the Federal President. An order from the president has been standard practice until now and is usually given to the leader of the party with the most votes.
“Classic stable”
According to the Federal President, we are dealing with “classic fairy tales”. What needs to be clarified now is: “How do we get this done?” But since he wants to avoid an “empty kilometer” here, Van der Bellen wants “clarity” first from the three parties with the most votes before issuing their mandate to form a government.
According to Van der Bellen’s instructions, Kickl, Nehammer and Babler should now “reliably clarify” themselves what mutual cooperation could be done. It will only then consider further steps in further discussions.
Van der Bellen is giving clarification to the three party leaders until the end of next week. The Federal President then wants to invite the party leaders again to the Hofburg to find out about the outcome of the talks. Van der Bellen wants to inform the public again as soon as there is news to report.
Unger (ORF): “Even further away”
Peter Unger (ORF) talks, among other things, about the next steps of the President of the Federation. The path chosen by Alexander Van der Bellen is a new one – there is still a long way to go before there is a new government in Austria.
Hardly any information about the content of the conversations
In the last few days, van der Bellen met with the party leaders of the FPÖ, ÖVP, SPÖ, NEOS and the Greens to hold initial discussions about a possible future coalition. At the end of the series of debates, Van der Bellen consulted with the leader of the Green Party Werner Kogler and the leader of NEOS Beate Meinl-Reisinger on Tuesday. As on Monday with SPÖ party leader Andreas Babler and Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and on Friday with Kickl, nothing was known about the content of the discussion.
Series of photos with 5 pictures
For Nehammer, Babler and Kogler, the talks were “very confident” out of “confidence,” as they told the media. Babler said they had a “very good conversation” about the “political situation in Austria”. Kogler also referred to secrecy on Tuesday. Meinl-Reisinger was a little more willing to provide information. Now everyone has a responsibility to ensure the future of the country, she said before her conversation with the Federal President.
Government formation: Van der Bellen against “empty kilometers”
It is not a government mandate for Herbert Kickl (FPÖ), but a mandate for the party leaders of the three major parties to clarify again by the end of next week who can and cannot work with them. This is the unusual path to finding a government that Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen set out in a short statement on Wednesday.
Kickl described his meeting with Van der Bellen as “a pleasant conversation, the atmosphere was quite good,” as he told his supporters on Sunday at the launch of the FPÖ’s election campaign in Styria, where the state elections will take place on the 24th of November. Van der Bellen listened very carefully and took a lot of time. According to his own statement, Kickl “announced” that he and the FPÖ wanted to rule.