VIENNA: The smallest of the three centrist parties in Austria’s coalition talks, the liberal Neos, is quitting the talks, the Neos’s leader said on Friday (Jan 3), throwing into disarray the negotiations that have excluded the far-right Freedom Party.
The move leaves the talks in serious doubt, with the eurosceptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO), which came first in September’s parliamentary election but was not tasked with forming a government, waiting in the wings.
Opinion polls show the eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO’s support has only grown since it secured 29 per cent of the vote in the Sep 29 election. It has slammed the talks as an undemocratic a seeking to create a “coalition of losers”.
Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger told a hastily-convened news conference that the talks with Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative People’s Party (OVP) and the Social Democrats (SPO) had lacked ambition and made insufficient progress.
She added, however, that her party was still prepared to throw its support in parliament behind projects that had already been agreed on in the talks, hinting at the possibility that the SPO and OVP could form a two-way coalition even though they would have a majority of just one seat in the lower house.
Spokespeople for the OVP and SPO were not immediately available for comment.
