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From /apa, October 14, 2024, 2:38 p.m
Image: HELMUT FOHRINGER (APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)
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FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl
Image: HELMUT FOHRINGER (APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)
VIENNA. FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl increased the pressure on the People’s Party on Monday, ahead of the talks between the party leaders of the FPÖ, ÖVP and SPÖ called for by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. The ÖVP was unimpressed by this.
The will of the voters, which pushed the Freedom Party into first place, must be respected, said Kickl. ÖVP General Secretary Christian Stocker did not accept this. Kickl not only lacks a majority in parliament, but also acceptance among the population.
Kickl, however, said that cooperation between the center-right majority, which is wanted by around 55 percent of voters, should not be sacrificed for personal reasons. In addition, the FPÖ chairman once again called for the task of forming a government for himself and his party, as the “big election winner”. As was the case last Saturday with his statement after the conversation with Van der Bellen, no questions were allowed about his statement.
Kickl appealed to the sensible forces in the party “not to leave Nehammer alone in his emotional state of emergency.” Nehammer, who stood for election for the first time after the departure of former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, is the “big loser”. Claiming to be chancellor after this “total crash” would be “absurd and a gross disregard for the election results.”
“Stability and impact force”
In the coming days, Nehammer and the ÖVP would have to answer the central question of whether it was about maintaining power or the future of Austria. The ÖVP can only implement the contents of Nehammer’s so-called Austria plan with the FPÖ, as there are major overlaps in terms of content. These are also the points that the voters chose with a large majority, said Kickl: “This is only possible with the Freedom Party and not with a Marxist-infected SPÖ that stumbles from one chairman’s debate to the next.”
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});Austria needs “stability and impact”, which is only possible in a two-party coalition that has a broad majority and overlaps in terms of content. Now it’s not about “personal sensitivities or aversions,” explained Kickl: “Anyone who chooses such an approach is acting unprofessionally and does not meet the requirements profile of a Federal Chancellor.”
If the ÖVP prefers to form a coalition with the SPÖ, the next act could be an “experimental government”, a collaboration between two parties that do not fit together in terms of content. We have already experienced what that means under black and green. “Apparently they want to continue with it.”
Criticism of Van der Bellen
Kickl also criticized Van der Bellen. The FPÖ leader argued that in his statement he said that “clarity” was needed. The clarity has already been on the table since last week and Van der Bellen himself has “clouded” it. Because the election result is “crystal clear” and offers little room for interpretation. There was only one winner with the FPÖ and even with the preferential votes he, Kickl, was clearly ahead of Nehammer and SPÖ leader Andreas Babler: According to the (not yet checked) preliminary results, Kickl received 85,542 preferential votes at the federal level, Nehammer 60,402 and Babler 46,440 . The official numbers will be announced by the electoral authority on Wednesday.
The Federal President could have provided clarity by giving the party with the highest number of votes – the Freedom Party – the task of forming a government, as has always been the case in the past: “This has been common democratic practice for years.” Kickl does not accept the argument that this order would be doomed to failure because no one wants to govern with the FPÖ. “Negotiations always contain the possibility of failure,” emphasized Kickl: “Otherwise they wouldn’t be negotiations.” But you won’t know whether they actually do that until you try it. You can’t swim without getting in the water.
“Like a set-up game”
On the other hand, not least because of the large overlap in content between his party and the ÖVP, there is the possibility that a lot of things could get changed through negotiations. This was also the case in 2017. He was convinced that if there was a mandate to form a government, a lot of movement could be achieved very quickly on common issues and a process could be set in motion.
The current approach, however, seems like a “set-up game”. Apparently the “loser coalition” already seems to be in a “dry bag,” but no one dares to speak plainly because it is “deeply undemocratic to exclude the winner,” Kickl argued. Or Van der Bellen knows exactly that “when we start negotiations, something will come of it because a mechanism is set in motion and, little by little, a growing basis of trust is created on issues.”
“Blue wave of success continues to roll”
In addition, after the election, Nehammer himself demanded that the FPÖ should be given the government mandate. If the FPÖ is further marginalized, further clear signals will be needed in the upcoming elections in Styria or Burgenland or in the local council elections in Lower Austria. Just like in the state elections in Vorarlberg, where there was a “tremendous plus for the FPÖ” yesterday. “It happened as I said it would: the blue wave of success continues to roll.”
Van der Bellen had commissioned the FPÖ, ÖVP and SPÖ to explore possibilities for cooperation after the National Council election. The party leaders of the three parties are therefore meeting for talks this week. The ÖVP and FPÖ will first talk to each other on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday there will be a conversation between the ÖVP and SPÖ, and on Thursday there will be a conversation between the Freedom Party and the SPÖ.
ÖVP confirms no to coalition with Kickl
On Monday afternoon, ÖVP General Secretary Stocker responded to Kickl’s demands in a press conference. The ÖVP is also of the opinion that the party with the highest number of votes should be given the task of forming a government, but on the other hand, Nehammer had already made it clear in the summer “that we will not be conducting coalition negotiations with Herbert Kickl.” The ÖVP keeps its word, and even after the election it stands by everything it said before the election.
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});Regarding Kickl’s claims, Stocker noted that majority voting does not apply in Austria and Kickl therefore needs a coalition partner and a majority in parliament. But he lacks this as well as acceptance among the population. For the ÖVP general secretary, this is no surprise: Anyone who has been calling everyone else dictators and traitors for five years shouldn’t be surprised that they won’t find a partner to form a coalition “and that they’ll be home alone.”
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Despite Kickl’s claims, there are also major substantive and programmatic differences between the two parties, emphasized Stocker. In terms of worldview, there are worlds in between, because in the FPÖ conspiracy theories are just as in vogue as the lack of differentiation from the Identitarians, for example: “For this reason, a coalition with Herbert Kickl is out of the question for the ÖVP,” affirmed Stocker. The People’s Party, which ran under Karl Nehammer’s name, has the word of its (almost) 1.3 million voters. The desire for change among the 1.4 million FPÖ voters “despite Herbert Kickl” was understood, he emphasized.