Austrian chancellor tries to keep coalition alive after resignation

ustrian Chancellor Christian Kern urged his coalition partners on Wednesday to keep their government alive after the head of the main conservative party quit, raising the prospect of a snap election.

A new election would give the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) a chance at entering national government. Polls regularly show the party running first on roughly 30 per cent, with Kern’s Social Democrats (SPO) a close second.

Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner, leader of the conservative People’s Party (OVP), said earlier on Wednesday he was quitting after having failed to quell in-fighting and speculation about the party’s future leadership.

“I am convinced that it makes sense to use the more than a year ahead to make the necessary changes in our country,” Kern told a quickly convened news conference. The government’s term runs until autumn of next year.

Mitterlehner’s surprise resignation as vice chancellor and economy minister will take effect on May 15. His plan to also give up as OVP leader raised the pressure on Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, 30, to take over as head of the party, as many expect him to do before the next election.

Kurz has said he has no interest in taking over the OVP at present but several polls suggest that it would boost the party’s ratings and thrust it into first place if he did.

Mitterlehner said the OVP’s leadership would meet on Saturday to decide on his replacement, but Kern appeared to assume that Kurz would be chosen.

“I am offering the OVP and Sebastian Kurz a reform partnership for Austria,” Kern told reporters, without providing details. The two parties already announced a new coalition agreement in January that included several law-and-order measures aimed at eroding support for the FPO.


BICKERING

But despite the January agreement, which was also aimed at breathing new life into a coalition plagued by in-fighting for years, the squabbling between SPO and OVP has continued.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka, an OVP hawk, accused Kern in an interview this week of “failure as chancellor”, prompting SPO ministers to round on Kurz.

Mitterlehner’s inability to quell such indiscipline and the persistent speculation about whether Kurz would replace him appeared to have prompted his decision to quit.

“I am not a place-holder,” Mitterlehner told a news conference called at less than 40 minutes’ notice.

Where his resignation would leave the party and the coalition remained unclear.

“The likelihood of a snap election has now increased,” political analyst Thomas Hofer said.

“There are various possible scenarios: that the new OVP leader calls (an election) immediately at the weekend, or someone takes over in the interim until Kurz takes over before elections,” he added. “Of course, Kurz can take over now and say … ‘We will pull through together with the SPO’.”