We have tried everything. But it has proven impossible to reach an agreement on key issues, so there are no hopes for a positive future for Austria, says ÖVP leader Nehammer according to the country's public service company ORF.
ÖVP and SPÖ have previously governed Austria but got the smallest possible majority in the parliament with a total of 92 out of 183 seats in the election in September.
They therefore wanted to bring in another party, Neos, into a coalition, but that party jumped out of the talks on Friday.
Opening up to the far-right
The major stumbling block was, according to SPÖ party leader Andreas Babler, the view on how to turn around a record-large budget deficit.
He regrets that the talks have collapsed and says to ORF that "this is no good news for our country". He thanks Nehammer at the same time and accuses ÖVP's right-wing of the failure.
The far-right party FPÖ – which became the largest party in the election but which other parties opposed cooperation with – is now sensing morning air and sees only two alternatives: Talks with them or new elections.
Or as party leader Herbert Kickl puts it:
They were the architects behind the losing coalition and we now see the remnants of their anti-Kickl strategy. Instead of stability, we now have chaos.
The president is now in a tight spot.
Return for Kurz?
This one, Alexander Van der Bellen, has not commented on the new political chaos. His office only briefly announces that the president will sound out the situation on Sunday.
Nehammer is also leaving the post as party leader and the ÖVP leadership will, according to Kronen Zeitung, meet on Sunday morning to discuss a successor.
The newspaper writes that Nehammer's departure can open up for a comeback for former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who resigned in the autumn of 2021 after corruption allegations and was convicted of perjury last year.
But according to ORF, he is the candidate who is believed to be best suited to challenge FPÖ and Herbert Kickl, both in negotiations and in a possible new election.
