VIENNA. The Neos, who were among the election winners alongside the Freedom Party on Sunday with 9.2 percent (plus 1.1), nominated their team to the board for exploratory talks yesterday. Chairwoman Beate Meinl-Reisinger doesn’t want to reveal the names until Thursday evening, when the extended board has approved the proposal, which poses “no big surprise.”
In addition to Meinl-Reisinger, general secretary Douglas Hoyos, club vice-president Nikolaus Scherak and Vienna’s deputy mayor Christoph Wiederkehr are likely to be seated. MP Sepp Schellhorn was also often mentioned.
Meinl-Reisinger did not want to go into further detail on the question of whether Alexander Van der Bellen should give FP boss Herbert Kickl the task of forming a government (“I am not in a position to tell the Federal President anything”). For her, the election of a blue National Council President is “not decidedly ruled out”. The FPÖ should present a person who will then be subjected to a hearing. She must be “impeccable”, act “non-partisan” and have experience in parliamentarism. For the Neos, the fact that the number one candidate in the election is the President of the National Council is “not automatic”.
As in the election campaign, Meinl-Reisinger emphasized that she “doesn’t want a blue-black coalition.” The Neos are ready to work on an alternative with reforms. Also because it often involves constitutional changes, she invited all party leaders, including those from the Greens and FPÖ, to “broad parliamentary cooperation” in emails.
With reform program
They want to be part of the next government, but only if it can agree on a reform program. It’s about “structural answers” in the areas of inflation, self-determined living, the economy and migration. The election results encouraged the Neos to “negotiate such reforms”. Meinl-Reisinger didn’t want to talk about preferred ministries. As a message to SP leader Andreas Babler, she stated: “The advocacy for wealth taxes was not strengthened on Sunday.”
