New coalition government formed without the far-right election winner

Austrian party leaders Christian Stocker of the Peoples’ Party (center) Andreas Babler of the Social Democrats (left) and Beate Meinl-Reisinger of NEOS in Vienna

Three parties reached a deal yesterday to form a new centrist Austrian government, five months after a far-right party won an election but later failed to form an administration.

The conservative Austrian People’s Party, the center-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos agreed on a program for a coalition after what Christian Stocker, who is expected to become chancellor, called “perhaps the most difficult negotiations on a government in the history of our country.”

The country’s politicians broke a post-World War II record of 129 days to form a new government that dated to 1962.

Migration, the economy and extremism

“The challenges are historic and far-reaching,” said Stocker, the new People’s Party leader, pointing to the ongoing war in Ukraine, a creaking Austrian budget and pressure from migration — long a top issue in Austrian politics.

The coalition deal calls for strict new asylum rules in the European Union country of 9 million people. It foresees setting up “return centers” to house rejected asylum-seekers and suspending family reunions. Stocker said the new government will “reserve the right to impose an asylum freeze” if the number of asylum applications increases.

The agreement includes a “mandatory integration program” for all seeking asylum in Austria, which will include tuition in language and values as well as community service.

Stocker also announced that the three parties agreed to work on a headscarf ban for girls under 14 to prevent “segregation and repression.”

Andreas Babler, the Social Democrats’ leader, underlined the need to fix Austria’s budget deficit and said that “broader shoulders can carry heavier loads.” He said the deal includes a levy on banks.

Austria faces rising unemployment and a third year of recession. It’s under pressure from the EU to save billions of euros.

Babler said the new government will work to “remove the breeding ground for radicalization and extremism” following a recent fatal stabbing by a suspected Islamic extremist. He said it will look for “quick solutions” to ensure social media platforms take greater responsibility.

Second time lucky

This was the second attempt by the three mainstream parties to form a new government without the far-right, anti-immigration and euroskeptic Freedom Party, which in Austria’s Sept. 29 election emerged for the first time as the strongest political force. It took 28.8% of the vote.

Their first effort collapsed in early January, prompting the resignation of conservative then-Chancellor Karl Nehammer — and setting the scene for Austria’s president to ask Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl to try to form a government.

Kickl’s own attempt to put together a coalition with the People’s Party, which finished second in the election, collapsed in mutual recriminations on Feb. 12. The mainstream parties, which faced the risk of a new election that was unlikely to do them any favors, resumed their effort to find common ground.

An unexpected new leader

Stocker, 64, is heading for the chancellery as one of the most unlikely politicians yet to become the country’s leader — a position he wasn’t running for when Austrians voted in September.

He spent much of his career as a local politician in Lower Austria province before entering the national parliament in 2019. The highest elected office he has held so far was that of deputy mayor of Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna. But he became an experienced crisis manager as the general secretary of the People’s Party, a position he took in 2022.

When he became party leader last month, Stocker made an about-turn and entered coalition talks with Kickl, under whom his party had previously refused to work — but balked at Kickl’s demands and blamed his “attitude” for scuttling the negotiations.

The coalition deal presented yesterday says the parties in the new government are “committed to the European Union as the greatest peace project of all time.” It adds that Austria will continue to participate in the European Sky Shield missile-defense initiative, something that Kickl’s party wanted to leave.

Why is this a three-party gov’t?

The outgoing government, a coalition of the People’s Party and environmentalist Greens now led by interim Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg, has remained in place on a caretaker basis since the election.

The People’s Party and Social Democrats often governed Austria together in the past but have the barest possible majority in the parliament elected in September, with a combined 92 of the 183 seats.

That was widely considered too small a cushion, so the two parties sought to bring in Neos, which has 18 seats and hasn’t previously joined a national government.

The deal still needs formal approval by the leadership of the two bigger parties and a two-thirds majority of Neos members, at a convention expected on Sunday. STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN, VIENNA, MDT/AP