It has been decided what the solution to the deadlocked coalition negotiations in the neighborhood will be.

Negotiations have dragged on since President Alexander Van der Bellen tasked conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer with forming a new government in October. The decision was made after all other parties rejected cooperation with the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won national elections for the first time in September.

Nehammer tried to create a coalition from his own party, that is, the ÖVP, the center-left SPÖ and the liberal NEOS. The ÖVP and the SPÖ previously governed together in Austria, but in the parliament elected in September, they have only 92 seats out of 183. which would not mean a stable majority, so the two parties decided to involve NEOS.

Beate Meinl-Reisinger, however, the leader of NEOS said at a hastily convened press conference on Friday that his party “will not continue” the negotiations about being a partner in a new government. As he said, no progress was made and no agreement on “fundamental reforms” was reached. According to him, the negotiations with the conservative People’s Party and the Social Democrats “lacked ambition”.

However, he added that his party is still willing to support the projects that have already been approved in the negotiations in the parliament, referring to the possibility that the SPÖ and the ÖVP can form a two-party coalition, even if they only have a one-mandate majority in the lower house.

In the evening, the spokesperson of the ÖVP announced that his party and the SPÖ had agreed to continue the negotiations, and that the FPÖ would not be involved.

This was also confirmed by the head of state Alexander Van der Bellen: Karl “Nehammer and Andreas Babler (SPÖ leader) told me personally today that they will continue the coalition negotiations. And there can be no delay in this. I want a clear situation!” – stated the president in his TV statement.

According to the poll results, it is the support of the Eurosceptic FPÖ has only increased since it won 29 percent of the votes in the September 29 elections. The party described the coalition negotiations as an undemocratic attempt to create a “coalition of losers”.

The cover image is an illustration. Cover image source: Getty Images