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
Berita Terbaru
Pengungkapan: Entitas XM Group menyediakan layanan khusus eksekusi dan akses ke Fasilitas Trading Online kami, yang memungkinkan Anda untuk melihat dan/atau menggunakan konten yang tersedia pada atau melalui situs, yang tidak untuk mengubah atau memperluas, serta tidak mengubah atau memperluas hal tersebut. Akses dan penggunaan ini selalu sesuai dengan: (i) Syarat dan Ketentuan; (ii) Peringatan Risiko; dan (iii) Pengungkapan Penuh. Oleh karena itu, konten disediakan hanya sebagai informasi umum. Anda juga harus ketahui bahwa konten Fasilitas Trading Online kami bukan sebagai ajakan atau tawaran untuk untuk melakukan transaksi apa pun di pasar finansial. Trading di pasar finansial mana pun melibatkan tingkat risiko yang signifikan pada modal Anda.
Semua materi yang diterbitkan di Fasilitas Trading Online kami hanya untuk tujuan edukasi/informasi dan tidak boleh mengandung nasihat dan rekomendasi finansial, pajak investasi atau trading, catatan harga trading kami, penawaran, permintaan, transaksi dalam instrumen finansial apa pun atau promo finansial untuk Anda yang tidak diminta.
Konten pihak ketiga apa pun, serta konten yang disiapkan oleh XM, seperti opini, berita, riset, analisis, harga, informasi lain atau link ke situs pihak ketiga yang tersedia "sebagaimana adanya", sebagai komentar pasar umum dan bukan menjadi nasihat investasi. Sejauh konten apa pun ditafsirkan sebagai penelitian investasi, Anda harus memperhatikan dan menerima bahwa konten tersebut tidak dimaksudkan dan belum disiapkan sesuai dengan persyaratan hukum yang dirancang untuk mempromosikan kemandirian riset investasi dan dengan demikian akan dianggap sebagai komunikasi pemasaran di bawah hukum dan peraturan yang relevan. Mohon dipastikan bahwa Anda telah membaca dan memahami Notifikasi pada Riset Investasi Non-Independen dan Peringatan Risiko kami mengenai informasi di atas, yang dapat diakses disini.
