"We are still waiting ..."

No red-blue? FPÖ appointment cancellation is a mystery

Coalition poker in Burgenland: There have already been exploratory talks between Norbert Hofer (FPÖ) and Hans Peter Doskozil (SPÖ).

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA)

Which coalition partner will Burgenland's governor Hans Peter Doskozil (SPÖ) choose? The rumor mill has been churning since the election Sunday. Insiders interpret a board meeting of the FPÖ, which was canceled at short notice, to mean that there will be no red-blue coalition.

The FPÖ Burgenland has canceled its state party board meeting planned for Thursday evening in Mattersburg. According to top candidate Norbert Hofer, the meeting will be rescheduled as soon as it is clear with whom Doskozil wants to negotiate the new state government.

We are postponing the board meeting because a lot depends on the decision of the state governor. We'll wait a few more days.

Norbert Hofer, Spitzenkandidat der FPÖ Burgenland

Hofer has already held exploratory talks with the red state governor. He did not want the postponement of the Executive Board to be taken as an indication that there would be no coalition with the blue party.

Discussion "good in terms of content"
The discussion with Doskozil was "good in terms of content". However, there was no further information on the content, as this had been agreed. The FPÖ meeting is to be held at a later date once the decision on the coalition has been made and announced. He had discussed this together with Alexander Petschnig, the head of the provincial party, and Johann Tschürtz, the head of the party club, explained the blue top candidate.

Official decision by the SPÖ on Monday
However, the rejection could indicate that it was already clear during the exploratory talks that red and blue would not reach a common denominator and that the signs were pointing to red-turquoise. With the ÖVP, for example, the SPÖ would have a solid majority, in contrast to red-green, which has only one mandate overhang. Hofer, of course, said nothing about this.

Doskozil had announced that he would hold preliminary talks with all three state parliamentary parties this week. Internal discussions will take place on Saturday and the public will be informed of the decision on Monday after the SPÖ committees