Saturday, January 4, 2025, 9:58 p.m
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A few days after Romania fully entered Schengen, Karl Nehammer’s political career ended. The Austrian chancellor, Romania’s biggest opponent at the European level in the last three years, accepted that he will not be at the head of the government again, because he could not form a pro-European coalition.
Negotiations between ÖVP (Nehammer’s conservative party) and SPÖ (Social Democrats) finally broke down on Saturday evening. Shortly after, Nehammer announced his resignation from all positions.
Austria’s government crisis is worsening. After NEOS (a liberal party) pulled out of coalition negotiations on Friday, the ÖVP is now ending talks with the SPÖ. In an initial statement, Chancellor Karl Nehammer emphasized that they “tried everything.” “An agreement on the key points is not possible, so it does not make sense for a positive future for Austria,” Nehammer clarified, Austrian newspaper Heute wrote.
Shortly afterwards, the ÖVP leader spoke in a video message and announced his resignation as chancellor and party chairman. In an emotional speech, Nehammer explained that he wanted to facilitate an orderly transition.
“We negotiated long and honestly. No agreement with the SPÖ on the essential points is possible. The People’s Party keeps its promises: We will not agree to measures that are anti-performance and anti-business or new taxes. We are therefore ending negotiations with the SPÖ and will not continue them,” Nehammer wrote on Twitter.
We negotiated long and honestly. No agreement is possible with the SPÖ on essential points. The People’s Party stands by its promises: We will not agree to measures that are anti-performance and anti-business or new taxes. Therefore we end the negotiations… pic.twitter.com/evKgQbtTwq
— Karl Nehammer (@karlnehammer) January 4, 2025
The successor to the current ÖVP leader is still unclear. Recently, the names of the former Minister of Constitutional Affairs Karoline Edtstadler and the Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer have been mentioned more and more often. But a political comeback of Sebastian Kurz is no longer excluded. “If there are new elections, we have to see who is most likely to defeat Herbert Kickl,” a senior ÖVP official told Heute.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen announced on Tuesday (October 22nd) that he had tasked Chancellor Karl Nehammer, head of the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP), to form a governing coalition, even though the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) won the general elections in September, reports Reuters.
In a public statement, President Alexander Van der Bellen announced that he was asking Karl Nehammer, whose party came in second, to hold coalition talks with the Social Democrats, who came in third, because no party is willing to govern with the leader of the Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl.
“Clearly and unequivocally: Herbert Kickl will not find a coalition partner to make him federal chancellor,” said Van der Bellen, quoted by Austrian media.
Source: ziare.com
