Vienna coalition thriller: Who will be the next finance minister?

Vienna coalition thriller: Who will be the next finance minister?

Wien, Österreich - After months of negotiations and several setbacks, the party leaders of the conservative ÖVP, the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Liberal NEOS have agreed to officially accept coalition talks. Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen announced that there are progress and that the parties are now on the home stretch. This “sugar coalition”, as it is called, would be a premiere at the federal level, since the three parties have never been in a government before. The agreement follows the failed negotiations between the ÖVP and the right-wing populist FPÖ, which received the most votes in the last elections and is therefore under pressure to keep their own electorate at a mood, as zdf reported .

In the Vienna SPÖ, however, there was an agreement on the candidate for the Ministry of Finance: Finance City Councilor Hanke, who is considered the compromise candidate, will soon be officially nominated. Hanke, who has been working in his current function since 2018, is confronted with important challenges, such as the impending EU deficit procedure and the renegotiation of financial equalization. Despite speculation about other candidates, the SPÖ has decided to present Hanke as her top man. The party's board will decide on the personnel package on Friday. The NEOs are also working intensively on their party program and planning to present new ministerial candidates as part of the coalition after Matthias Strolz withdrawn his ambitions as Minister of Education, such as .