Herbert Kickl invites ÖVP to hold coalition talks

Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Herbert Kickl extended an olive branch to the conservative Austria’s People Party (ÖVP) on Tuesday, inviting them to coalition talks.

His comments come after Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen gave him the green light to attempt to form a ruling coalition. 

Though the two parties have a history of clashing heads, Kickl said during a press conference that he would officially extend the invitation once his party’s leadership approved the move in a meeting on Tuesday evening. 

The conservative ÖVP is the only viable coalition partner for the FPÖ, but Kickl urged the party to be “honest” in talks or face the threat of a snap election amidst rising support for his own political group. 

Kickl said early steps in talks would be small and that it still needs to be seen whether the coalition would be viable or not. However, he also said he does not want to lose any time and now wants to start a “massive political firefighting operation.” 

During his statement on Tuesday, Kickl pointed out that it had been 100 days exactly since parliamentary elections in September but described the three months since the results came in as “lost.” 

Coalition talks between the far right and conservatives aren’t guaranteed to succeed, but there are no longer any other realistic options in the current parliament and polls suggest that a new election soon could strengthen the Freedom Party further.

Kickl’s party secured victory in those elections, winning 28.8% of the vote and surpassing outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative ÖVP, which came in second. 

Van der Bellen initially tasked Nehammer with forming a government. However, the ÖVP refused to enter a coalition with the FPÖ under Kickl – leading to a political stalemate. 

Efforts to form a governing alliance without the FPÖ failed by early January, prompting Nehammer to announce on Saturday that he would resign.