Austria's far-right Freedom Party wins election, but will it govern?
VIENNA, Sept 29 (Reuters) -The far-right Freedom Party (FPO) led by Herbert Kickl won Austria's parliamentary election on Sunday, initial projections showed, potentially putting it in pole position to form a government for the first time in postwar history.
Projections show the FPO in first place but far from having an absolute majority, meaning it will need to find a coalition partner in parliament to form a stable government, if President Alexander Van der Bellen asks it to.
Based on a count of 50.2% of ballots, the FPO's share of the vote is projected to be 29.2%.
WHAT ARE KICKL'S OPTIONS?
The only party that has clearly left the door open to a coalition with the FPO is the ruling conservative Austrian People's Party (OVP). But the OVP's leader, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, has ruled out forming a government with Kickl in it.
That, along with Van der Bellen's reservations about Kickl, raises the question of whether Kickl would step aside to let another member of his party become chancellor.
Given how hard he and his party have campaigned on the idea that Kickl should become "volkskanzler", or people's chancellor, that currently seems unlikely.
FPO-OVP (AROUND 55% COMBINED)
If the FPO is tasked with trying to form a coalition, the only party with which it would have a majority is the OVP.
The two parties overlap on many key policy areas, particularly in pushing for tougher rules on immigration.
Both also backed tax cuts to lift a dismal economy poised to contract for its second year running.
Negotiations could, however, be complicated by the difficult relations between Kickl and Nehammer. Nehammer spent the campaign casting Kickl as a conspiracy theorist unfit to govern.
OVP AS POSSIBLE KINGMAKER
The OVP is a party of power. It has been in every government, except a short-lived caretaker government that was officially party-free, for the past 37 years.
While many in the OVP feel ideologically closest to the FPO, the OVP would at least in principle have an alternative to a coalition with the FPO: a three-way alliance with the third-placed Social Democrats and one of the two parties on slightly less than 10%, the liberal Neos or the left-wing Greens.
In that scenario, the OVP would be the largest party, meaning Nehammer could stay on as chancellor. That could prove more tempting than being junior partner to the FPO.
PRESIDENTIAL HURDLE
President Van der Bellen, an ex-Greens leader, swore in FPO ministers including Kickl when they formed a coalition with the OVP in 2017. That coalition collapsed in scandal in 2019.
Van der Bellen also signed off on Kickl being dismissed from that government at the request of then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the OVP, days before parliament sacked the whole government.
The president has since voiced reservations about Kickl and hinted he would either not let him become chancellor or not ask the FPO to try to form a government if it came first.
Still, the FPO's victory margin was projected to be stronger than final polls had indicated, strengthening Kickl's case.
Although it is established practice for the president to ask the first-placed party to do that, he is not obliged to.
"It is established practice but as far as I am aware it is not in the constitution," Van der Bellen said last year.
"What is in the constitution is that I appoint the chancellor... It is one of the very few points where the president has a completely free hand."
So Van der Bellen could take an entirely new approach.
Reporting by Dave Graham and Francois Murphy; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise
면책조항: XM Group 회사는 체결 전용 서비스와 온라인 거래 플랫폼에 대한 접근을 제공하여, 개인이 웹사이트에서 또는 웹사이트를 통해 이용 가능한 콘텐츠를 보거나 사용할 수 있도록 허용합니다. 이에 대해 변경하거나 확장할 의도는 없습니다. 이러한 접근 및 사용에는 다음 사항이 항상 적용됩니다: (i) 이용 약관, (ii) 위험 경고, (iii) 완전 면책조항. 따라서, 이러한 콘텐츠는 일반적인 정보에 불과합니다. 특히, 온라인 거래 플랫폼의 콘텐츠는 금융 시장에서의 거래에 대한 권유나 제안이 아닙니다. 금융 시장에서의 거래는 자본에 상당한 위험을 수반합니다.
온라인 거래 플랫폼에 공개된 모든 자료는 교육/정보 목적으로만 제공되며, 금융, 투자세 또는 거래 조언 및 권고, 거래 가격 기록, 금융 상품 또는 원치 않는 금융 프로모션의 거래 제안 또는 권유를 포함하지 않으며, 포함해서도 안됩니다.
이 웹사이트에 포함된 모든 의견, 뉴스, 리서치, 분석, 가격, 기타 정보 또는 제3자 사이트에 대한 링크와 같이 XM이 준비하는 콘텐츠 뿐만 아니라, 제3자 콘텐츠는 일반 시장 논평으로서 "현재" 기준으로 제공되며, 투자 조언으로 여겨지지 않습니다. 모든 콘텐츠가 투자 리서치로 해석되는 경우, 투자 리서치의 독립성을 촉진하기 위해 고안된 법적 요건에 따라 콘텐츠가 의도되지 않았으며, 준비되지 않았다는 점을 인지하고 동의해야 합니다. 따라서, 관련 법률 및 규정에 따른 마케팅 커뮤니케이션이라고 간주됩니다. 여기에서 접근할 수 있는 앞서 언급한 정보에 대한 비독립 투자 리서치 및 위험 경고 알림을 읽고, 이해하시기 바랍니다.
