Quotes of the week

Kickl to ÖVP: “No games, no tricks”

FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl

(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

After the collapse of the coalition negotiations between the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS, the ball is now in the FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl's court. He is supposed to form a government and has very clear ideas about it, as quotes this week show.

"Evidence is needed. This includes, for example, an awareness of who has now won the election and who has just come second and is not the winner. (...) It is also clear to me - no games, no tricks, no sabotage, no obstructionism and no politics for the sake of retaining power," the politician said in the direction of the ÖVP, for example.

Things got serious between the blue and black parties on Thursday afternoon. FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl and ÖVP leader Christian Stocker each met with two confidants for in-depth exploratory talks.

My temper is well chilled.

ÖVP-Chef Christian Stocker zeigt sich schmerzbefreit.

"My temper is well cooled," Stocker made clear. "Christian Stocker has always been one of Herbert Kickl's harshest critics. And that is precisely why he is exactly the right person to sound out whether cooperation with the FPÖ is even possible in this constellation," said Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP), Governor of Lower Austria.

Christian Stocker has always been one of Herbert Kickl's fiercest critics. And that is precisely why he is exactly the right person to sound out whether cooperation with the FPÖ is even possible in this constellation.

Landeshauptfrau Johanna Mikl-Leitner

Ex-ÖVP leader: "Give him therobber's ladder"
 "I could never have imagined that she would seriously consider giving this monstrously ridiculous Mr. Kickl the robber's ladder to the chancellorship," commented the Viennese ex-ÖVP leader Bernhard Görg. However, the FPÖ leader is "a ridiculous trifle compared to a US President Donald Trump", said Hans Peter Haselsteiner from the NEOS.

After the collapse of the coalition negotiations, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen said he had learned "that there really are always new situations". Other voices believe they already know how the new negotiations between the FPÖ and ÖVP will turn out. "If you put a mouse and a cat in a box, you already know how it will turn out," said the Tyrolean AK President Erwin Zangerl.

The first major sticking point will be the budget. Against the backdrop of the billion-euro budget shortfall, EU deficit proceedings are to be averted.