Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced on Saturday that he would resign. Report that Austrian media Saturday evening. Nehammer says he will resign as chancellor and chairman of his conservative party ÖVP “in the coming days” after the cabinet formation with the social democratic party SPÖ failed.
“After the failure of the coalition negotiations, I will (…) resign from both my positions as Chancellor and Chairman of the People’s Party in the coming days and facilitate an orderly transition,” Nehammer said in a statement. a message on his social media. The chancellor’s decision comes a day after the liberal NEOS party suddenly decided to withdraw from the negotiations.
Last September, the radical right-wing party FPÖ became the largest during the elections, for the first time in Austria. The party received 28.9 percent of the votes. After that, the conservatives, led by Chancellor Nehammer, and the Social Democrats were the largest. However, these parties decided after the elections not to cooperate with the FPÖ in a possible coalition. The aim was to sideline the radical right party, although it had governed twice before with the ÖVP.
Debt to SPÖ
“We have tried everything so far,” Nehammer said, according to the newspaper Die Presse. By this he means that all possibilities for the desired three- or two-party coalition between the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS have failed. “An agreement on essential key points is not possible.” In a video, Nehammer blames what he calls the “destructive forces” of the Social Democrats for the failure of the negotiations.
Because the talks failed, the ÖVP chairman and chancellor are now resigning. With his decision, Austria’s political future is again uncertain.
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