VIENNA (AFP) – Austria’s conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he would step down in the “coming days” after breaking off coalition talks with the Social Democrats over disagreements on key issues.
The surprise move might lead to snap polls being called in the Alpine European Union (EU) member country – or the conservatives might negotiate with the far right that won national elections in September.
Nehammer announced in a video message on X that he would step down “both as chancellor and party chairman of the People’s Party (OeVP) in the coming days and enable an orderly transition”.
The development comes just one day after Austria’s liberal party withdrew from three-party coalition talks to form a centrist government.
The aim had been to sideline the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) that won September elections with 29 per cent but was unable to find partners to form a national government in the Alpine EU member state.
Nehammer said that he had wanted to be “the force of the political centre in order to build a bulwark against the radicals” who “only live by describing problems” rather than solving them.
He “always stood for stability”, he added – even if that was not popular in politics.
FPOe leader Herbert Kickl in a statement called the parties involved in the coalition talks “losers”, saying that “instead of stability, we have chaos” after three “wasted months”.
The conservative People’s Party came second with 26 per cent, while the centre-left Social Democrats (SPOe) gained 21 per cent in September.
That led Nehammer to pursue talks with the SPOe and the liberal party NEOS, who got nine per cent, to form a government to shut out the far right, but those three-way talks collapsed.
