Austria avoids an FPÖ chancellorship for the time being

DER SPIEGEL Austria avoids an FPÖ chancellorship for the time being Oliver Trenkamp • 1 hour • 5 minutes reading time There will probably not be an extreme right-wing chancellor in Austria any time soon: the coalition negotiations between the FPÖ and the ÖVP have failed (more here). FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, who had already rhetorically declared himself the "People's Chancellor", informed Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen that the talks had been broken off. What happens next? Three variants: Scenario one: There will be new elections soon, in which the FPÖ may gain even more ground. It was already the strongest force in September, and it is still leading in the polls. Scenario two: An expert, minority or transitional government is formed, which is tolerated by the democratic parties in parliament. There would be new elections later. Scenario three: The ÖVP makes a new attempt to form a centrist government with the social democratic SPÖ and the liberal Neos. Negotiations between these centrist parties failed in January. More than 130 days after the National Council elections, there is still no new coalition in Austria. At the moment, the defeated ÖVP and Greens alliance is running the affairs, led by Alexander Schallenberg as interim chancellor - a transitional government that is only administering. "Political instability is affecting the Alpine republic at an inopportune time, the situation is tense," says my colleague Oliver Das Gupta, reporting from Vienna. "The economy is sluggish, finances are tight, and decisions on many projects and reforms need to be made quickly." Van der Bellen plans to announce what will happen next in the evening.