Chancellor asked to form new government after parties snub far-right leader

Current Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has been tasked with forming a new government after all other parties refused to work with the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, which last month won a national election for the first time.

The Freedom Party finished first in the September 29 poll with 28.8% of the vote, ahead of Mr Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party, which took 26.3%.

The centre-left Social Democrats were third with 21.1%.

The result meant the outgoing governing coalition of Mr Nehammer’s party and the environmentalist Greens lost its majority.

Whoever leads the next government will need to build a coalition to have a parliamentary majority. But Mr Nehammer’s party has said it would not work with the Freedom Party under its leader, Herbert Kickl.

The other three parties in the new parliament said they would not work with the Freedom Party at all. And Mr Kickl said the Freedom Party would only go into government with him as chancellor.

On October 9, President Alexander Van der Bellen asked the leaders of the three biggest parties to hold talks on possible cooperation, dispensing with a tradition of giving the election winner the task of trying to form a new government.

The party leaders reported back to him on Monday, and Mr Van der Bellen said all had stuck to their positions.

As a result, he said he was asking Mr Nehammer to form a government and talk to the Social Democrats.