Far-Right blocked from government in Austria despite winning election
The far-Right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) has been blocked from government despite winning the country's election.
After five months of deadlock, the conservative Peoples' Party, centre-Left Social Democrats and liberal Neos reached a three-party coalition agreement on Thursday for the first time in Austrian history.
Christian Stocker, the conservatives' leader, will become chancellor, and Andreas Babler, leader of the Social Democrats, vice chancellor.
With the so-called 'firewall against the far-Right' just about holding – as it has done in neighbouring Germany – Herbert Kickl, the FPO leader, branded the arrangement a 'coalition of losers' and called for a snap election.
The FPO came out on top in September's election with 28.9 per cent of the vote, although it did not win enough seats in parliament to form a government.
As all other main parties refused to work with the FPO, Alexander Van der Bellen, Austria's president, initially asked Karl Nehammer, the then-conservatives' leader and incumbent chancellor, to attempt to create a government.
After this effort collapsed in January, the president gave the task of forming a coalition to the FPO, as the 'firewall' – a pledge by mainstream parties not to work with or form governments with parties deemed too Right-wing – is not as entrenched in Austria as it is in Germany.
In Germany, conservative Friedrich Merz's attempt to toughen migration laws with the help of the far-Right Alternative for Germany party fell apart last month. Some members of Merz's party, the Christian Democratic Union, refused to support the measure.
The FPO, who have governed Austria twice before, ultimately failed to create a government with their country's own conservatives due to disagreements over Russia, with the FPO said to favour warmer relations with Vladimir Putin.
After the collapse of the FPO's attempts in January, the mainstream parties attempted once to put together a coalition.
The newly-reached deal has been referred to as the 'sugar coalition' because their parties' colours resemble that of jelly-beans.
The alliance is likely to be unwieldy and driven by desperation to avoid new elections that the FPO would likely win more emphatically than it did in September, as polls suggest support for the party has surged to 34 per cent.
On Thursday Mr Kickl said: 'Today is not the end, I'll be back, no question.'
Austria is often seen as the bellwether for collaboration between conservatives and the hard-Right in German-speaking countries, as FPO's first inclusion in a government was in partnership with the conservatives in 2000.
It once again entered government under the conservatives in 2017.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Europe might be increasing its defense spending, but it's moving way too slowly to be ready for Russia, says Saab CEO
Saab's CEO Micael Johansson said that while Europe's leaders have announced huge defense spending hikes, the continent's processes are likely too slow to combat Russia. "Now, we want to spend like 3.5% to 5% of GDP on defense. But then, when you start getting into the normal processes in terms of, okay, defense forces have to decide what to spend the money on, and then it has to be acquired by someone," Johansson told Business Insider on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue. "The process is much too long still. It takes a long time before it gets into industry," he said, adding that he was worried about the gap. As an example, Johansson said Sweden's recent boost in defense spending to 3.5% of GDP would take military authorities "six months roughly" to decide what to spend the funds on. And that's before acquisition and matériel officials come into the mix, he said. "And so we're still looking at a couple of years before you actually get going, which is not good enough, I think, in times of war. Which is tragic," Johansson said, who was elected president of the Aerospace, Security and Defence Industries Association of Europe last month. At the same time, the CEO raised concerns about Russia's warfooting manufacturing capability, estimating that Moscow was making up about five times as many artillery shells as all of Europe yearly. "Europe has to take its own responsibility, so we need to have integrated our missile defense systems, the collaborative combat aircraft, we need to have space technology, we need to have hubs where we can do ammunition manufacturing," he said. At the Dialogue, which ran from Friday to Sunday, Germany's defense chief Gen. Carsten Breuer raised a similar issue for his country. "I think in Germany we are a facing a situation, or at least we faced a situation, where we had processes over processes and processes, and all those processes were developed not to spend any money," Breuer said at a panel on Saturday. "Because we had enough time, but we did not have the money." Breuer said that if German officials deemed a process was moving too quickly, they would "then develop an additional process to slow it down." European military officials have warned that their nations must be ready for a possible conflict with Russia by 2029, when they estimate that Moscow would be strong enough to launch an attack on the Baltic states. Anxieties on the continent have been compounded by the second Trump administration's signaled reluctance to continue supporting regional defense in areas where European states are falling short. President Donald Trump has called for NATO's European members to boost defense spending to 5% of their GDP. Some, such as Germany, have signaled an openness to such an eventual arrangement. Saab, which manufactures the Gripen fighter jet that's geared toward fighting Russian threats, has seen a rapid surge in demand since the war in Ukraine began in 2022. The Nordics' biggest defense manufacturer reported 2024 annual sales of 63.75 billion Swedish krona, or about $6.6 billion. By comparison, annual revenue in 2021 was 39.15 billion krona.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Portugal police launch new search for Madeleine McCann
Portuguese police have launched a new search for Madeleine McCann in Portugal's Algarve region where the three-year-old British girl disappeared in 2007, following a request from German authorities. The country's investigative Judicial Police said in a statement it was executing a European Investigation Order on behalf of the public prosecutor's office in the German city of Braunschweig, which in 2022 formally identified German citizen Christian Brueckner as an official suspect in Madeleine's disappearance. It added that "a wide range of investigations, namely search warrants" would be carried out this week in Portugal's Municipality of Lagos and all evidence seized would be handed over to Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). The search for traces of the child's body will focus on an area between Praia da Luz, a civil parish belonging to Lagos, and one of the houses where Brueckner lived when Madeleine disappeared 18 years ago, according to news reports by CNN Portugal and German newspaper Bild. Braunschweig prosecutors told Reuters "criminal procedural measures" related to the case were taking place in Portugal involving the BKA and Portuguese law enforcement but did not provide further details. London's Metropolitan Police said it was aware of searches carried out by the BKA in Portugal, adding the force was not present there but would "support our international colleagues where necessary". German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was assumed dead and that Brueckner was likely responsible. Brueckner has denied any involvement and has not been charged with any crime related to the case. The convicted child abuser and drug dealer is behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve. The last search for Madeleine was carried out in May 2023, when the police combed an inland reservoir in the Algarve but didn't find anything.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Chuck Todd says his tires were slashed after Trump called him out
Veteran broadcaster Chuck Todd, who left NBC News and launched a solo podcast earlier this year, said in an interview this weekend that someone slashed his car's tires after President Trump criticized him during Trump's previous White House stint. 'There was direct correlation, right? He'd call your name out, [and] you'd get weird phone calls, you'd get weird death threats,' Todd said in the interview Saturday with Times Radio, a British station owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch. 'I got my tires slashed in front of my house.' Todd told Times Radio host Maddie Hale that he addressed the issue of retaliation with the president. 'Honestly, I've had conversations with him. I said, 'You know, when you name-check people who are not in the public square, who do not have the protection you bring a level of —'' the former 'Meet the Press' moderator said. 'He views it as, 'Oh, it's good publicity.'' But Todd added that he does not believe Trump has malicious intent when he calls people out. 'I don't think he's doing it to create a security problem for these people, but what he wants to do is deflect blame,' Todd said. 'But the reality is that it creates a security problem.' Todd, who lives in Arlington, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C., was speaking in reference to reports that judges, lawmakers and others who have crossed Trump have increasingly faced threats, and many have beefed up security since his first presidency. 'More public officials in Washington have their own security detail now than at any point in the 30 years that I've covered Washington, and it's simply because of the name-checking, the threats that take place now from him,' Todd said. The White House didn't immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
