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Five months after the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) finished first in parliamentary elections, Austria’s three leading centrist parties have reached agreement to form a new government without it.
The centre-right People’s party (ÖVP), the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the liberal Neos, whose first attempt at forming a coalition failed in January, unveiled a 200-page programme aimed mainly at reviving the country’s ailing economy and cutting its budget deficit.
Christian Stocker, the ÖVP leader and likely next chancellor, said on Thursday a “common programme” had been agreed with the SPÖ and liberals, adding that the three parties had been working “around the clock” to finalise an accord.
The agreement ends months of uncertainty after the FPÖ’s historic election victory, when it gained almost 29% of the vote. After the mainstream parties’ unsuccessful effort, the ÖVP entered talks with the FPÖ, which also broke down this month.
They would have produced Austria’s first far-right-led government since the second world war, perhaps led by the Moscow-friendly, anti-EU FPÖ president, Herbert Kickl, who campaigned for mass “remigration” and an end to aid to Ukraine.
The negotiations foundered, however, over various disagreements including on EU and asylum policy, as well as the FPÖ’s insistence that it wanted control of both the interior and finance ministries, a demand the ÖVP rejected out of hand.
With the country without a government for the longest stretch in its modern history, President Alexander Van der Bellen had called on all three party leaders to reach a deal as quickly as possible. Ministerial roles are expected to be announced on Friday.
Stocker said the negotiations since September had been “perhaps the most difficult in the history of our country”. Austria’s challenges were “historic and far-reaching”, he said, including war in Ukraine, a flagging economy and pressure from migration.
Stocker took over the ÖVP leadership earlier this year after the former chancellor Karl Nehammer resigned when the first round of three-way coalition talks failed. Stocker is a 64-year-old lawyer who spent three decades in local politics and became an MP in 2019.
The coalition deal calls for strict new asylum rules, “return centres” to house rejected asylum seekers and the suspension of family reunification. Stocker said: “If the number of asylum applications increases, we reserve the right to impose a freeze.”
The parties’ programme also promises they will work out a “constitutional legal ban on headscarves”. It emphasises, however, that Austria’s new government remains “committed to a strong and better European Union”.
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The ÖVP and SPÖ have often governed Austria together in the past in a “grand coalition”, but have the slimmest possible majority in the new parliament, with a combined 92 of the 183 seats. The addition of Neos brings 18 more.
The deal still needs formal approval by the leadership of the two larger parties and two-thirds of Neos members at a convention scheduled for Sunday.
The political analyst Thomas Hofer said the three-way coalition was expected “not to cause any major waves”. But he said the parties faced huge problems, not least their popularity ratings, with the ÖVP down to 19% from the 26% it scored in September.
The FPÖ, which has gained popularity since the election and is now polling at nearly 35%, would be likely to win a new vote even more comfortably. Kickl has dismissed the new government as a “coalition of losers” and called for a snap ballot.
