Austrian far-right leader's efforts to form a new government collapse

VIENNA — Austrian far-right leader Herbert Kickl said Wednesday that his talks on forming a coalition government with a conservative party have collapsed.

Austria’s president gave Kickl a mandate to try to form a new government on Jan. 6 after efforts to put together a governing alliance with his Freedom Party failed.

But his talks with the conservative Austrian People’s Party appeared increasingly troubled in recent days, with constant talk of policy differences and a clash over who would get which ministries.

On Wednesday, Kickl informed President Alexander Van der Bellen that he was giving up the mandate to form what would have been the first national government headed by the far right since World War II.

Kickl’s anti-immigration and euroskeptic party, which opposes sanctions against Russia, won Austria’s parliamentary election in September. It took 28.8% of the vote and beat then Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s 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 that it wouldn’t go into government with the Freedom Party under Kickl and others refused to work with the Freedom Party at all.

Those negotiations collapsed in the first few days of the new year and Nehammer resigned, making way for interim Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg.

Kickl pointed the finger at the People’s Party for the collapse. In a letter to the president released by his party, he said that his prospective parties had insisted on sharing out the ministries in a new government before clearing up disputed policy points and they had been unable to reach an agreement.

“I do not take this step without regret,” he added. But he said that there appeared to be no point in trying to negotiate with the center-left Social Democrats, the only other party with which the Freedom Party could reach a parliamentary majority. It has refused to work with Kickl’s party.

“Austria has no time to waste,” Kickl said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what will happen next — whether Austria will move on to a new election, whether other parties will make another effort to form an alternative coalition, or whether a nonpartisan government of experts might be appointed for at least an interim period.