"Krone" commentary

The country needs new heads

Election winner Kickl has lost the chancellorship - will ÖVP leader Christian Stocker move in?

(Bild: APA-PictureDesk/Helmut Graf / Heute / picturedesk.com)

An eternal and ultimately unsuccessful haggling and tug-of-war, a flood of mutual recriminations, frustration and loss of trust, but still no government that the crisis-ridden country so desperately needs: 136 days after the National Council elections, Austrian domestic politics is facing a shambles like probably never before.

Herbert Kickl, the election winner and head of the FPÖ, who was only appointed to form a government far too late in January by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, was closer to the door of the chancellery for weeks than any blue party has ever been before. However, he set the bar so high himself with his way of conducting negotiations that he was ultimately unable to reach it.

Commentary on the major issues affecting Austria: Klaus Herrmann, Managing Editor-in-Chief

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

Kickl has not found a partner. And even if he were to win new elections - whether these take place in the near or more distant future - even higher than last September, the door buckle will probably disappear even further from his grasp.

But who now has his hand on this door buckle, who is moving into the Federal Chancellery? Christian Stocker, who never wanted to be ÖVP leader? SPÖ leader Andreas Babler, with whom the ÖVP (and large sections of his own party) can do just as little as with Herbert Kickl?

No, the Republic urgently needs new heads. The old ones have proven sufficiently that they can't do it.