Austria’s conservatives and the far-right on Friday agreed a coalition deal, two months after elections that saw the Alpine country move to the right and capping a year of successes for Europe’s nationalists.
The accord between Sebastian Kurz’s Austrian People’s Party (OVP) and the anti-immigration the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) announced late on Friday will see Kurz, 31, become chancellor and also the world’s youngest leader.
“We are happy that we have reached this agreement. Tomorrow [Saturday] we will inform the president about our program and our team,” Kurz, Austrian minister of foreign affairs in the outgoing government, told reporters in Vienna.
Photo: AFP
“Voters gave us a clear mandate to take into account their concerns, particularly when it comes their security,” FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache told the same news conference.
The OVP came first in the Oct. 15 vote with 31.5 percent after Kurz, nicknamed wunderwuzzi (whizz-kid), rebranded the staid party as his own personal “movement,” promising to get tough on immigration and lower taxes.
The anti-immigration FPO came third with 26 percent of the vote, double the stunning 13 percent notched by Alternative for Germany (AfD) in elections the month before.
The OVP and the FPO ran on promises of cutting benefits for all foreigners, even from the rest of the EU, slashing bureaucracy and stopping the EU having too much say in national affairs.
They stoked concerns about newcomers following a record influx of migrants in 2015 and fatigue with the previous unhappy “grand coalition” of the OVP with the center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO).
This was mirrored elsewhere, with the Dutch Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, now the second-largest in the Netherlands, the French National Front in a runoff for the French presidency in May and the German AfD entering the Bundestag and redrawing Germany’s political map.
However, the FPO is rare in western Europe in having translated its ballot box success into real power. Last year it came close to winning the largely ceremonial presidency.
Strache, 48, is set to become deputy chancellor. According to Der Standard’s online edition, the party has also secured the interior and the defense ministries.
A seasoned diplomat close to the FPO, although not a member, is set to be foreign minister. The OVP is to obtain the finance, economy and justice ministries, amongst others, Der Standard said.
The paper said in an editorial that coupled with an expected “extremely restrictive refugees policy,” it was “sinister and worrying” that all intelligence services would be FPO-controlled.
The last time the FPO entered government, in 2000 under controversial then-leader Joerg Haider, now dead, Austria was briefly ostracism within the EU.
This time though the reaction is likely to be much more muted with the FPO seen as having mellowed and with Europe more inured to right-wing parties.
Several different groups including the anti-fascist “Offensive against the Right” have said they plan to stage demonstrations in Vienna tomorrow.
The FPO, which has a partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party, wants EU sanctions on Moscow lifted and says Islam is not part of Austria.
Last year, Strache called German Chancellor Angela Merkel “the most dangerous woman in Europe” over her open-door migrants policy, and warned of “civil war in medium term” because of immigration.
The FPO is also ambivalent about the EU.
However, Kurz said on Thursday that the “pro-European” stance of the incoming government “has been secured.”
He reportedly aims to retain control of Austria’s EU affairs.
Further details on the new coalition’s plans are expected once the two parties approve the agreement. The government is to be sworn in next week.
One notable measure to have emerged so far from the coalition talks is a pledge to scrap a law that would have banned smoking from all bars and restaurants from May next year.
The parties are also said to have agreed on cutting tax and other salary charges and loosening labor laws. The FPO also wants more “direct democracy.”
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