Who will govern?

Party leaders now start their talks with Kickl

For the time being, Herbert Kickl has no partner for a future government - it is questionable whether this will change after the talks in the coming days.

(Bild: APA/Hans Klaus Techt)

Nobody wants to work with Herbert Kickl (FPÖ) - but at the request of Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, talks about possible cooperation with the FPÖ, the party with the most votes, began on Tuesday. The first step was taken by the incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) - but the content remained secret.

It was only on Monday that the ÖVP reaffirmed its clear rejection of a coalition with the election winner. However, two and a half weeks after the election, the commissioned talks between the party leaders of the FPÖ, ÖVP and SPÖ have now begun. 

In the afternoon, Nehammer sounded out the possibilities of cooperation with Kickl, with further talks to follow on Wednesday and Thursday. Kickl is claiming to be Chancellor, but is currently standing alone, as no party has shown any willingness to fulfill his wish.

In the run-up to today's meeting, neither the ÖVP nor the FPÖ wanted to announce where the meeting would take place. Information from several media representatives that the two could meet in parliament turned out to be false. Shortly before 2 p.m., Kickl was seen getting into a car in front of the FPÖ club premises in Reichsratsstraße. The FPÖ only told the journalists waiting in vain that the meeting would take place "in Vienna" and would last "as long as it takes".

Probably a similar principle with the SPÖ
The next meeting tomorrow is likely to follow a similar principle, with Nehammer and SPÖ leader Andreas Babler sounding out the possibilities for cooperation. The most likely coalition option apart from black-blue is currently the "Zuckerl" coalition - which Kickl admittedly calls a "loser coalition" - consisting of ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS, as the black-red surplus of only one mandate requires a third partner in realpolitik terms.

There will also be talks in this direction in the coming days: NEOS leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger will meet the Chancellor on Wednesday and the SPÖ leader on Thursday, a spokesperson confirmed. There will be "no communication" about these talks either.

President referred to "classic stalemate"
Van der Bellen has not yet given any party a mandate to form a government. The Federal President explained his decision not to give the FPÖ a chance for the time being with a "classic stalemate", as it is an election winner with which none of the other parties apparently want to govern.

The three party leaders should now "reliably clarify what kind of cooperation is conceivable" by the end of the week.