The party officials unanimously expressed their confidence in Chancellor and party leader Karl Nehammer. After the meeting, Nehammer announced that he was in favor of the FPÖ, as the election winner, being tasked with conducting exploratory talks. The Blues should also nominate someone for the office of National Council President.
“From my point of view, it is tradition that whoever won the election is tasked with leading the exploratory talks,” Nehammer told reporters. This should not change, nor should the fact that the election winner also appoints the President of the National Council. Nehammer did not want to clearly answer a corresponding question as to whether the ÖVP would agree to any blue proposal.
As far as the formation of a government is concerned, the Federal President is first in charge, as numerous ÖVP grandees emphasized before Nehammer. Upper Austria’s governor Thomas Stelzer and club chairman August Wöginger, like the party leader, thought it was good to adhere to “democratic customs”. It was emphasized that the opinion of the blue party leader Herbert Kickl remained unchanged.
“Muddling on” is not an option
The election results were also discussed and analyzed at the meeting. Nehammer let the APA know on Tuesday morning that he would face the vote of confidence. He received this unanimously. He then said about his party’s announcement: “At over 26 percentage points, the result was significantly better than we expected.” The “catch-up race” was partly successful, although it was not possible to take first place.
Other party officials, including Stelzer and the Lower Austrian governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner, emphasized when they arrived at the party headquarters on Vienna’s Lichtenfelsgasse that the ÖVP is a party “that always wants to govern.” “Continuing to muddle along as before” is not an option, said WKO boss Harald Mahrer.
In addition to the Chancellor, Claudia Plakolm, second on the list, Salzburg Governor Wilfried Haslauer and Styrian Governor Christopher Drexler did not want to make a statement in the morning. The second ÖVP state governor, who has another election to fight alongside Drexler this year, Markus Wallner in Vorarlberg, was connected via video.
This article was updated at 1:01 p.m
