Austrian President Alexander von der Bellen announced on Sunday that he would meet far-right politician Herbert Kiel as speculation grew that he would ask the Freedom Party leader to form a government.
Van der Bellen made the announcement after meeting with Chancellor Karl Nehmer and others at his presidential palace.
Niehammer has announced his resignation after coalition talks between his conservatives. Austrian The People's Party and the centre-left Social Democrats collapsed over the budget.
Nehammer has refused to work with Kickl, but others within his party are less adamant.
Earlier on Sunday, the People's Party named its general secretary Christian Stocker as interim leader, but the president said Nehammer would remain chancellor.
In the past, Stalker has criticized Kill, calling him a “security risk” to the country.
In its election program titled “Fortress Austria,” the Freedom Party calls for “uninvited immigration of foreigners” to create a more “uninvited population” by strictly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum through an emergency law. A “homogeneous” nation can be achieved.
The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to withdraw from the European Sky Shield Initiative, a German-led missile defense project. The Freedom Party also struck a friendship pact with Putin's United Russia party in 2016, which it claims has now lapsed.
Kiel has criticized the “elite” in Brussels and called for some powers to be brought back from the EU to Austria.
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Later that week, van der Bellen said he had spent several hours talking to key officials, after which he got the impression that “voices within the People's Party that are at odds with the Freedom Party under its leader Herbert Kiel They avoid working under it, they have become silent.”
The president said the development “has potentially opened a new avenue,” prompting him to invite Kiel to a meeting on Monday morning.
Kiel's Freedom Party won the autumn national election with 29.2 percent of the vote, but Van der Bellen tasked Nehmer with forming a new government because no other party was willing to work with Kiel.
The decision was heavily criticized by the Freedom Party and its supporters, with Kiel saying in October that it was “not right and logical” that he was not given a mandate to form a government.
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“We are not responsible for the time lost, the chaotic situation and the massive breach of trust,” Kill said on social media on Sunday afternoon. “On the contrary: it is clear that the Freedom Party has been and still is the only stable element in Austrian politics.”
Stocker addressed reporters on Sunday afternoon and confirmed that he had been “consensually” appointed by his party to serve as interim leader. He said that I am very honored and happy.
He also welcomed the president's decision to meet Kiel and said he now expects the leader of the party that emerged as the clear winner in the last election to be tasked with forming the government.
“If we are invited to negotiate to form a government, we will accept the invitation,” Stocker added.
Austria was plunged into political crisis on Friday after the liberal Neues party pulled out of coalition talks with the People's Party and the Social Democrats.
On Saturday, the two remaining parties, which hold only a one-seat majority in parliament, made another attempt to form a government – but it also failed after a few hours, with negotiators saying they would But could not agree on how to fix the government. budget deficit.
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