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The leader of Austria’s Freedom Party was given the mandate to form a new government on Monday, which would be the first led by the far right since World War II if successful.
The Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl, won Austria’s parliamentary election in September, winning 28.8 percent of the vote and beating outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party into second place.
But in October, President Alexander Van der Bellen gave Nehammer the first chance to form a new government after Nehammer’s party said it would not go into government with the Freedom Party under Kickl, and others refused to cooperate with the Freedom Party at all. Those efforts to form a governing coalition without the far-right failed in the first few days of the new year and Nehammer said on Saturday that he would resign.
The People’s Party then signaled that it might be open to working under Kickl. Van der Bellen said after a meeting with Kickl at the presidential palace on Monday that he tasked the leader of the Freedom Party to hold talks with the People’s Party on the formation of a new government.
“I did not take this step lightly,” the president told reporters. “I will continue to see to it that the principles and rules of our constitution are properly respected and upheld.”
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The extreme right and the conservatives have ruled together before, but on previous occasions with the Freedom Party as a junior partner. Most recently, they led Austria from 2017 to 2019 in a government in which Kickl — a 56-year-old with a taste for provocation — was interior minister. He failed in the scandal surrounding the then leader of the Freedom Party.
It is not guaranteed that coalition talks between the far right and the conservatives will succeed, but there are no other realistic options left in the current parliament, and polls show that new elections could soon further strengthen the Freedom Party.
In its campaign program called “Fortress Austria”, the Freedom Party called for the “re-emigration of uninvited foreigners”, to achieve “homogeneity” of the nation through tighter border control and the suspension of the right to asylum through emergency law.
The Freedom Party also calls for the lifting of sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to abandon the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defense project launched by Germany. Kickl criticized the “elites” in Brussels and called for some powers from the European Union to be returned to Austria.
Van der Bellen pointed out that the new government will not have an easy task.
“The economic environment is difficult. Austria is in a long-term recession, unemployment is rising; at the same time, our state budget must be restructured,” he said. “All the measures are unlikely to be popular, but they will have to be implemented.”
He also pointed to the geopolitical threats that Austria faces, especially as a result of the Russian war in Ukraine, and pointed out the importance of “constructive strengthening of European cooperation in the Union, also in the interest of Austrian industry and exporters”.
And the head of state, a liberal originally from the Greens for environmental protection, said that he and Kickl had a long discussion about media freedom in Austria.
Kickl is convinced of finding “sustainable solutions” in the coalition negotiations, “and wants that responsibility,” the president said.
Kickl walked past the reporters without comment as he was leaving the meeting.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
