That's why the end came

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(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

On Friday, the NEOS broke off the negotiations on the turquoise-red-pink "Zuckerl coalition". Party leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger explained her reasons for the break-up in the morning. The SPÖ had repeatedly said "no" to fundamental reforms.

Austria was in a veritable crisis and it was now necessary to think beyond the next election day - a viewpoint that Meinl-Reinsinger often found lacking among potential coalition partners. In the end, "no breakthrough" could be achieved by the NEOS on important reform ideas. Meinl-Reisinger mentioned a necessary reform of federalism, a reform of the financing of the healthcare system, the pension system and a restriction of the influence of the parties.

The budget and taxes had been a sticking point in the negotiations from the outset - exacerbated by the great need for consolidation.

Austria will have to make savings.

NEOS-Chefin Beate Meinl-Reinsinger

Austria will have to make savings, although the "dimension also surprised us", as the NEOS leader admitted. Meinl-Reisinger, however, saw more power politics in potential partners. "Too often there was a mild smile towards us." The government negotiations would therefore not be continued - in order to prevent "business as usual".

Too often there was a mild smile towards us.

NEOS-Chefin Beate Meinl-Reisinger

Meanwhile, there were also strong side blows in the direction of FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, who had failed to create a basis of trust (with possible government partners, note) despite a clear mandate from voters. The FPÖ alone had failed to build a sustainable majority under blue leadership - nobody else was to blame, Meinl-Reisinger emphasized.

Inflation and the "Kurz mentality"
The inflation caused by Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine posed existential questions for people and companies, and many had had "a letter of resignation under the Christmas tree". But the Turkish former chancellor Sebastian Kurz also got his comeuppance. After all, the "whatever the cost" mentality he proclaimed is what led Austria to its current crisis situation in the first place.

We had been "warned for years" about what this mentality was doing to our country - namely spending money "ambitiously", but at the same time not making the necessary structural changes to "move forward".

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

Once again, people are only thinking until the next election day - and in the end there will be a trade-off like "at a bazaar", concluded the NEOS leader.

Thanks by name to Nehammer, not Babler
Meinl-Reisinger only thanked the representatives of the ÖVP by name, Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer and party chairman August Wöginger, whom she acknowledged as having the will to reform and to think outside the box. With regard to the SPÖ, the pink party leader showed understanding that the road ahead for the Social Democrats was long in many areas, but appealed to the "national political responsibility not to lose sight of the location".

FPÖ currently at 35.5 percent
The withdrawal from the coalition negotiations comes at the worst possible time, especially for the Chancellor's party. The ÖVP has been in decline since its election defeat at the end of September. Polls recently put the party at just over 20 percent.

Should there be new elections, the FPÖ would make massive gains. In the APA election trend, which takes into account the polls of the last five weeks, the blue party recently stood at 35.5 percent.