Austria's three-party coalition takes office after a five-month wait for a new government
World
Austria's three-party coalition takes office after a five-month wait for a new government
(AFP) -A three-party coalition bringing together Austria's centre right, centre left and liberals was sworn into government on Monday following five months of negotiations. The far-right Freedom Party had come first in last year's elections with just under 30 percent of the vote but had been unable to form a coalition of its own.
Austria's Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen (R) and incoming Federal Chancellor Christian Stocker sign documents during the swearing-in ceremony of the new federal government at the Presidential Chancellery in Vienna on March 3, 2025. © Helmut Fohringer, AFP
Austria’s new government took office on Monday, with Christian Stocker taking over as chancellor at the head of a three-party coalition after a five-month wait for a new administration.
The new government will have to deal with rising unemployment, a recession and a creaking budget. Its coalition agreement, reached on Thursday after the longest negotiations in post-World War II Austria, foresees strict new asylum rules in the European Union country of 9 million people.
This is the country’s first three-party government, bringing together Stocker’s conservative Austrian People’s Party, the centre-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos. The alliance in the political centre came together only at the second attempt after the far-right Freedom Party emerged as the strongest political force in a parliamentary election on September 29, winning around 29 percent of the vote.
The People's Party will head the interior and defence ministries while the Social Democrats will control finance and justice, with the liberal Neos running foreign affairs.
Although the three parties have agreed on a 200-page government programme, they will have to hammer out many more policies as they go along, potentially causing tensions in their alliance.
A first attempt collapsed in early January, prompting the resignation of then chancellor Karl Nehammer, who had said his party wouldn’t work under Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl. Stocker took over from Nehammer as leader of the People’s Party and went into negotiations with Kickl on a possible coalition but those collapsed on February 12 amid mutual finger-pointing.
The three parties in the centre then renewed their effort to find common ground, heading off the possibility of an early election.
Stocker, 64, becomes chancellor although he wasn’t running for the job when Austrians voted in September and hasn’t served in a national government before. Social Democratic leader Andreas Babler is the new vice-chancellor.
Beate Meinl-Reisinger takes over as foreign minister from Alexander Schallenberg, who also served as interim chancellor for the past two months after Nehammer’s resignation and isn’t part of the new Cabinet.
