The Populist Freedom Party on the right of Austria said he had put an end to his attempts to form a coalition government with the conservative people party ÖVP.
The announcement follows several weeks of animated and brand negotiations the second time that the coalition talks have failed since the September elections.
ITOVP first tried to form a coalition with three parties with the Social Democrats and the Liberal Neos, then a bipartite coalition with the Social Democrats-but the two efforts collapsed.
With the Freedom Party (FPö) unable to form a government, Austria is now in an unclear political situation.
Freedom Party chief Herbert Kickl called for new quick elections and blamed ÖVP for collapse, accusing the party of not wanting to compromise and playing “power games”.
“Although we have concessions to the ÖVP on many points, they were not ready to make decisive compromises. ITOVP was concerned about power games and posture – we, Freedom Party, was concerned about security, prosperity and honesty. “
Earlier, Kickl told President Alexander Van der Bellen that he abandoned the mandate to form what would have been the first government led by Austria since the FPö was founded by former Nazi in the 1950s.
The Freedom Party adapted to Russia and Eurosceptic marked history during the general elections of September when it exceeded the polls for the first time with 28.8% of the votes, beating ÖVP by Chancellor Karl Nehammer, which obtained 26.3%.
Despite this, in October, President Van der Bellen first gave Nehammer the mandate to form a government. However, these negotiations collapsed in early January, leading Nehammer to resign and open the way to the interim chancellor Alexander Schallenberg.
On January 6, Van Der Bellen gave Kickl the mandate to form a government after the efforts of other parties to create a coalition without the failure of freedom failed.
Coalition negotiations in Austria generally remain secret, until a decision is made. But in recent days, the two parties have published declarations on their requests, which suggests that the talks were in trouble.
The Freedom party wanted both the powerful Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Interior, which was a major obstacle for the ÖVP. For its part, the ÖVP wanted confirmation of “the lack of Russian influence in Austria” and Vienna remaining “a reliable partner of the European Union”.
Kickl said on Wednesday that he abandoned the mandate, writing in a statement that he had “made this stage without regret”.
He continued: “The ÖVP insisted on clarifying the portfolio allocation in early February. Although we made concessions to the ÖVP on many points in the following talks, negotiations have finally failed, to our regret.”
The secretary general of the ÖVP, Alexander Pröll, said that the talks had failed because Kickl was in “power in power” and had refused to make compromises.
“Herbert Kickl himself was hardly involved in government negotiations. In five weeks, Kickl sat at the negotiation table for a total of seven hours,” he said.
“He did not fulfill his mandate to train … A central-right government. Instead, he insisted on all his requests, developed fantasies of total power and ended the talks.”
Political analyst Thomas Hofer told the BBC that there was “no basis of confidence” between the two parties.
“Kickl tried to adopt Trump’s game book” Promises held “, but it’s difficult in a coalition environment.
“The ÖVP decided ultimately that the loss of the two main ministries with a chancellor who cannot be controlled, and no base of confidence was too risky,” he said.
The ÖVP was the only party that had been willing to negotiate with the Freedom party.
President Alexander Van der Bellen said that Austria now had four options after the collaps in the coalition.
These were new elections, a minority government, a government of experts or another attempt to form a government by parliamentary parties, he said.
He said he would have discussions with political parties in Austria in the coming days to see what option was realistic.
“Liberal democracy lives on compromise,” he said.
