Is Babler holding his own?

Automatically saved draft

Doris Bures has reportedly called Andreas Babler off.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

After the NEOS took themselves out of the negotiations of the Zuckerl coalition on Friday, SPÖ leader Andreas Babler apparently also wanted to take his party out of the game. However, he had reckoned without the powerful Vienna SPÖ ...

This Friday was certainly imagined quite differently at the SPÖ headquarters in Löwelstraße. After a long night of negotiations, the intention was to resume haggling over the coalition deal at lunchtime. Actually. Because in the morning everything turned out quite differently. With the withdrawal of the NEOS, the Reds were quickly declared the scapegoat. According to party leader Andreas Babler, the SPÖ only wanted to defend itself against pension cuts and real wage losses in the public sector, while banks and corporations were "spared" savings despite horrendous excess profits.

Marathon of crisis meetings
In the ÖVP, but also in the ranks of the NEOS, people saw things differently. The two right-of-centre parties criticized the SPÖ's backward-looking approach to negotiations. While the mutual recriminations between the NEOS and SPÖ began as to who was responsible for the chaos, one crisis meeting after another was taking place in the background.

How to continue after the bombshell? Is an ÖVP-SPÖ coalition even possible without a third coalition partner? Nehammer and Babler already had a long discussion on Friday morning. Here, ÖVP leader Nehammer made it very clear to Babler that he had no room for new (property) taxes, the Red Party's most important election promise. This was followed by an appointment with Federal President Van der Bellen in the Hofburg.

At around 3 p.m., after an internal meeting, the next bombshell was prepared behind the scenes: Babler wanted to force an end to the coalition negotiations with the ÖVP because he felt he had no chance of pushing through wealth taxes after the meeting with Nehammer. A press conference was hastily called by the SPÖ for 4 pm in parliament. Suddenly, however, the assembled journalists were told: Please wait! The press conference was postponed hour after hour.

The chronology of events

29. 9. The FPÖ becomes the strongest party for the first time in the National Council elections.

9. 10. Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen does not issue a mandate to form a government for the time being and calls on the leaders of the FPÖ, ÖVP and SPÖ to "clarify what kind of cooperation would be conceivable" in order to resolve the "stalemate".

22 October: Van der Bellen instructs Nehammer to form a government and asks him to enter into negotiations with the SPÖ and to clarify whether a third partner is needed.

12/11: The ÖVP and SPÖ invite the NEOS as a third partner to take a seat at the negotiating table.

18/11: Nehammer, Babler and Meinl-Reisinger announce the start of official coalition negotiations.

21/11 : Coalition negotiations start in seven main clusters and 33 subgroups.

20. 12. after rumors of a collapse of the negotiations in the tripartite format, a minimum compromise is agreed: the budget restructuring is to be set for seven years.

3. 1. the NEOS leader breaks up the Zuckerl coalition.

The reason? Babler is said to have been told off by the powerful grande dame of the SPÖ, Doris Bures. Bures told him that the party leader first had to discuss the next steps with the SPÖ presidium. This is said to have resulted in a U-turn after heated discussions. According to information from "Krone", the SPÖ Vienna in particular is said to have argued in favor of continuing negotiations with the ÖVP. It was not until 6.50 p.m. that the statement announced hours earlier was made. And so it came to pass - Babler announced: "Our hand remains outstretched - for reasons of state". The negotiations continue - for the time being.