The Austrian Chancellor resigns after the collapse of coalition talks Politics news

Nehammer says his People’s Party will not support measures that it believes will harm the economy or new taxes.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he would resign after the collapse of talks between the country’s largest centrist parties on forming a government without the far-right Freedom Party.

Saturday’s announcement comes a day after the liberal Neues party withdrew from negotiations with Nehammer’s conservative People’s Party and the Social Democrats.

He said, “After the coalition talks stop, I will do the following: I will step down from my position as advisor and head of the People’s Party in the coming days.”

In a video posted on his social media accounts, the outgoing chancellor said that “long and sincere” negotiations with the center-left had failed despite a shared interest in staving off the rise of the far right.

Nehammer stressed that his party will not support measures that it believes will harm the economy or impose new taxes.

He said it would enable an “orderly transition” and criticized “extremists who do not offer a single solution to any problem but live only by describing problems.”

Far-right Freedom Party (FPO) It won the first parliamentary elections in its history in late September with nearly 30 percent of the vote.

But other parties refused to govern in coalition with the Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly opposition Freedom Party and its leader Herbert Kickl, so President Alexander van der Bellen decided in late October Nehammer was tasked with forming a coalition.

Nehammer’s announcement comes after he also failed to reach an understanding with the Neues party.

Neuss’s leader, Beth Meynell Reisinger, said progress was impossible and that “fundamental reforms” had not been agreed.

After the chancellor’s exit, the vice president is expected to meet to discuss potential successors.

The political landscape remains ambiguous in Austria, with no immediate possibility of forming a stable government due to ongoing disagreements between parties.

The president may now appoint another leader and an interim government while the parties try to find a way out of the impasse.

The next government in Austria faces the challenge of having to provide between 18 and 24 billion euros ($18.5 to 24.7 billion), according to the European Commission.

The country’s economy has stagnated for the past two years, suffers from high unemployment rates, and has a budget of 3.7 percent of GDP – higher than the 3 percent ceiling set by the European Union.