Readers to blue-black

New elections are not a solution: show responsibility now!

Shortly before 5 pm on Tuesday, FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl (left) arrived at the Hofburg in a good mood. ÖVP leader Christian Stocker wants certain "basic lines" guaranteed.

(Bild: APA/Georh Hochmuth, Zwefo, Krone KREATIV)

Still no agreement between blue and black: The power games are annoying "Krone" readers more and more (see also "The Voice of Austria" below). New elections tend to be rejected!

The thriller surrounding the government negotiations continued on Tuesday - krone.at reported live. Austria has been without a government for 136 days - and the country is increasingly fed up with the ego games of the coalition negotiators. The reputation of politics is sinking daily - as letters to the editor of the "Krone" and online comments show. Appeals such as "the cat-and-mouse game in the negotiations must end now!" are the order of the day.

It seems that the FPÖ and ÖVP have not yet fully taken note of "Austria's voices", because despite faltering negotiations, Herbert Kickl got out of the Mercedes limousine in front of the Hofburg with a broad smile, waved to a waiting FPÖ fan before hurrying to Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen accompanied by his confidant Reinhard Teufel.

Kickl did not want to know anything about the end of the government negotiations. "The negotiations are running in a good atmosphere." However, there was no sign of the self-confident FPÖ leader making any concessions to the ÖVP.

FPÖ wants Ministry of the Interior because ÖVP has EU Commissioner
"There are clear positions and the FPÖ also wants to lead the Ministry of the Interior in the next government. That is our core competence. And the ÖVP's asylum competence is reflected in the form of EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner," Kickl explained smugly.

In other words, Kickl's hidden message to the People's Party is that the FPÖ is responsible for asylum policy at home and the ÖVP at EU level. From the FPÖ leader's point of view, this division is therefore only fair.

More than an hour later, ÖVP leader Christian Stocker drove up to the Hofburg. He reiterated his red lines: "It's about the rule of law, about security in Austria and it's also about sovereignty and independence from Russia. We still need to talk about all of this, we still need to reach an agreement and resolve disputes".

"Already agreed the day before"
The official reason why both party leaders had to come to the Hofburg: the head of state wanted to get a picture. Both parties emphasized that the appointment had already been arranged the day before. "It is customary for the Federal President to be informed regularly. And I will do that now", Kickl stated.

In the hours leading up to the Hofburg meeting, there had been speculation that the coalition negotiations had come to an end. The ÖVP leadership - above all the powerful Economic Chamber President Harald Mahrer - told the FPÖ via "Krone" that Kickl was in a "power frenzy" and that he might not be "fit to govern".

Van der Bellen also annoyed
ÖVP veteran Reinhold Lopatka announced that he saw only "very, very little" chance of an agreement. Kickl, however, denied this: "If the negotiations had failed, you would have heard something to that effect." However, it was also heard from Hofburg circles that Alexander Van der Bellen was increasingly annoyed by the constant back and forth.

The presidential chancellery said after the meeting: "The Federal President met the negotiating partners for talks in order to be informed about the status of the government negotiations. He has asked both party leaders to clarify quickly and definitively whether the negotiations can be concluded."

Ten hours of negotiations in four weeks
However, this would require the two party leaders to sit together more intensively at the Green negotiating table. In net terms, party leaders Kickl and Stocker have personally negotiated with each other for a maximum of ten hours in the past four weeks. Rarely have there been government negotiations in the Second Republic where meetings between the party leaders lasted less than 45 minutes. This is also a sign of how bad the mood is between the Blue Party and the People's Party.

After the row the previous week and a three-day break, the FPÖ and ÖVP wanted to solve the problems in a six-party meeting on Monday evening. The plan came to nothing. No negotiations into the late hours of the night. Instead, they ended after 90 minutes. The ÖVP presented the blue negotiating team with a two-page policy paper - with "basic lines" (see below), which the People's Party wants to be guaranteed.

The ÖVP has defined a catalog that it wants to "put beyond dispute".

(Bild: Kronen Zeitung)

The ÖVP has defined a catalog that it wants to put "beyond dispute".

(Bild: Kronen Zeitung)

Through the back door
The last round of negotiations on Tuesday reportedly only lasted 20 minutes. They left the room in parliament via the back door. In order to deceive the waiting journalists, the empty room was guarded for hours.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

"The voice of Austria" - it can be found in the letters to the editor of the "Krone" as well as in many postings on krone.at. Many appeal to politicians to finally come to their senses.

"Do you amateurs also think about the population?"
One poster under the pseudonym FredKeller, for example, says: "Still need for discussion after four months. Do you amateurs actually think about the population?" Another krone.at poster under the name Sanzona wonders: "In our sandbox, territorial and sovereignty claims were settled within a few minutes. Since our government is just a big sandbox game - what's taking so long?"

Poster Austriani writes critically: "Do they ever work? Today 90 minutes, yesterday 90 minutes, at the weekend off and on Friday they are only supposed to have negotiated for 45 minutes. You'd have to be a system politician ..."

"What a Punch and Judy show," says CassiusClay, while poster Mejer says: "I'm convinced that both Blue and Black want a joint government with a Chancellor Kickl. It will be clear to both parties that the necessary negotiations will also require some compromises! But if there is a lack of ability to compromise, then I wonder how a 'multi-year cooperation' could work ..."