Coalition crisis in Austria: SPÖ demands quick government formation!

Coalition crisis in Austria: SPÖ demands quick government formation!

Laimgrubengasse 10, 1060 Wien, Österreich - In Austria, the political parties are faced with failed government formation. The coalition negotiations between the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS have broken off, as the APA news agency and the standard unanimously report. At a press conference, the Neos chairman Beate Meinl-Reisinger confirmed that she informed the party leader Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and Andreas Babler (SPÖ) and Federal President Alexander van der Bellen. This is followed by intensive negotiations, which lasted late into the night on Thursday. The right -wing populist FPÖ has become the strongest force in parliament with 28.85 percent of the votes from the National Council election at the end of September.

Meinl-Reisinger cited pension issues as the biggest point of controversy in the negotiations. It was time to take a look at the social and generational balance. She emphasized that courage for structural reforms is needed to tackle topics such as federalism, health system and pension. The ÖVP general secretary Christian Stocker assigned responsibility for the failure of the negotiations on the SPÖ and its internal conflicts and criticized that the movement in the SPÖ was not sufficient to advance the conversations, such as Zeit.de reported.

The search for solutions

The Mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig at the same time confirmed the need to form a sustainable government with social democratic participation in order to tackle Austria's challenges. "We in Vienna stand for a policy of responsibility," said Ludwig and warned of a "blue and black, dark future" under the FPÖ. In his opinion, it now requires quick measures to strengthen the health system, affordable living space and climate protection. The SPÖ are particularly important to the differences to the right-wing positions of the FPÖ, such as