Conservatives led by Austrian People’s Party Chairman Sebastian Kurz on Wednesday agreed to form an unprecedented coalition government with the Greens, capping almost three months of negotiations.
“We have succeeded to unite the best of both worlds... It is possible to protect the climate and borders,” said Kurz, whose party gained the most votes in snap elections in September last year.
The polls were triggered after a corruption scandal engulfed Kurz’s far-right ally after just 18 months in a coalition government, during which the 33-year-old had carefully cultivated his image as a hardliner on immigration.
Greens leader Werner Kogler said the two disparate parties had managed to “build bridges” to form a government for “the future of Austria.”
It is to mark the first time the Green party has been in power. The ecologists made key gains in the elections, with the environment replacing immigration as the top concern of voters.
Kogler said that the Alpine nation — which has been among just a handful of EU nations that have seen their greenhouse-gas emissions continue to increase between 1990 and 2017 — would aim to become a front-runner in terms of fighting climate change in Europe.
The two leaders said that they would reform the tax system to lower the burden on Austrians — a key People’s Party promise — but at the same time introduce higher ecological taxes in line with the Greens’ campaign.
Kogler said transparency, including freedom of information, as well as fighting poverty among children, the elderly and women would also be a priority.
Analysts said that the new government would face challenges after Kurz’s previous rule with the far-right Freedom Party saw a raft of anti-immigration measures passed, sharply dividing Austrians.
Describing a deal as a “huge stretch,” analyst Thomas Hofer said that Kurz could lose voters he gained from the Freedom Party, when the People’s Party got 37.5 percent of the vote.
The Greens secured 13.9 percent of the vote, their best-ever result, due to the environment replacing immigration as top concern in the nation of 8.8 million people.
Hofer said that other European nations, such as Germany, could also see Conservative-Green coalitions. Sweden, Finland, Lithuania and Luxemburg already have Greens in government.
“Kurz is setting a certain trend maybe ahead of time and this is certainly something also on the international stage that he would be able to sell,” Hofer said.
Hofer described Kogler, who is expected to be vice chancellor, as a “pragmatist,” who had stabilized his party.
A congress of the party’s almost 280 delegates must endorse the coalition agreement, but are expected to do so.
“It’s a historical chance for them,” Hofer said.
As junior coalition partner, the Greens are expected to get four ministries, including an enlarged environment ministry that would also comprise infrastructure, traffic, energy and technology, a party representative familiar with the negotiations said.
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