Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen asked the leader of the far-right FPÖ party, Herbert Kickl, this Monday, January 6, to find a majority to govern. This is a first in the history of the Alpine country, after the failure of negotiations by other political forces.
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In view of “ the new situation (…), I loaded » Herbert Kickl, whose political group, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) came first in the legislative elections in Austria at the end of September with nearly 29% of the votes, “ to hold discussions with the conservatives “, declared the environmentalist head of state, Alexander van der Bellen. The Austrian president spoke after a meeting of just over an hour with the far-right leader, adding that he had “not wasn’t easy to take » such a decision.
Although the FPÖ has already participated in power as a minority partner, it has never held the chancellery in this EU member state of nine million inhabitants. Before the vote, Alexander van der Bellen did not hide his reluctance towards Herbert Kickl, who in the past called him “ senile mummy “. And the octogenarian head of state preferred, in October, to choose the outgoing conservative chancellor Karl Nehammer to lead the negotiations, contrary to custom which normally reserves this right to the winning party.
But the failure of negotiations with the social democrats and liberals, followed by the resignation announced on Sunday of Karl Nehammer (Austrian People’s Party, ÖVP), fierce opponent of Herbert Kickl, changed the situation, in a spectacular twist against a backdrop of the rise of nationalist forces in Europe.
Also readAustria: Chancellor Karl Nehammer will resign due to lack of government coalition
Demonstrators gathered to shout “ Nazis outside »
The Conservatives’ new interim leader, Christian Stocker, has said he is open to talks with the far right, with both parties sharing close positions on the economy and immigration. Austrian conservatives have already allied themselves twice with the FPÖ, in 2000 and in 2017, in a country which broke the taboo of the far right well before the rest of Europe. The far right also currently participates in four of the nine regional governments. “ The voices within the ÖVP which ruled out working with (…) Kickl became much more discreet », Commented the president on Sunday.
Entrusting the FPÖ with the task of leading negotiations is heavy with symbolism: it is a first since 1945 for this formation founded by former Nazis and led by a man who wants to be called “Volkskanzler” (the “people’s chancellor” ) – like Adolf Hitler, a native of Austria, even if he denies any Nazi references. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Monday in front of the Hofburg Palace, the seat of the presidency, shouting “ Nazis outside “.
Herbert Kickl, 56, took over as head of the FPÖ in 2021. By playing the conspiracy card in the face of restrictions anti-Covidhe was able to forget the corruption scandals which had destroyed his predecessor. Nervous, always hidden behind a three-day beard, he opted for a hard line, opposed to the media, to LGBT+, to Europe and to the elites, far from any strategy of demonization. This former Minister of the Interior is also sparing Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine.
Small round glasses and the silhouette of a marathon runner, the former philosophy and history student also embraces his proximity to identitarians against a common enemy: Islam. He speaks without apologizing about “remigration” – an unconstitutional project of forfeiture of nationality and expulsion of Austrians of non-European origin – and is quick to insult his opponents.
Lack of agreement between conservatives, liberals and social democrats, Austria relies on the far right
Many Austrian media had predicted, early in the morning of January 6, that the president would entrust Herbert Kickl with the task of forming a government, explains Romain Lemaresquier of the RFI International service. The doors seemed open for a future coalition between the FPÖ and the conservative People’s Party: President Alexander van der Bellen gave the green light.
The parties with which the People’s Party was negotiating before Karl Nehammer’s resignation on Sunday did not reach an agreement because there were too many differences on crucial points. The first to leave the discussions were the elected representatives of Neos, the Austrian liberal party, who refused any pension reform, which was a sine qua non condition of the SPÖ, the social democratic party. Then the People’s Party, in turn, slammed the door, refusing any tax increase, again a sine qua none condition of the social democrats. In the absence of these formations, it was impossible to find an agreement to set up a government.
A coalition government between the conservatives and the FPÖ would not, however, be a first in Austria: the last one lasted less than two years, between December 2017 and May 2019. On the other hand, it would be the first time that a member of the FPÖ, a party founded by former Nazis, seizes the chancellery. And Herbert Kickl, its leader, is not just anyone. He has always been in the shadow of the former leaders of this formation. It was, for example, the pen of Jorg Haider, who died in 2008.
And unlike, for example, Marine Le Pen in France, Herbert Kickl does not seek to demonize his party. On the contrary, he assumes his racist, Islamophobic, pro-Russian positions, hostile to immigration and to the European Union. And this is what allowed the FPÖ to win the last legislative elections and to now be mandated to form a government.