Far-right Austrian party abandons talks with conservatives to form coalition government

GENEVA

A far-right Austrian party leader on Wednesday declared the collapse of talks to form a government with a conservative party, telling the president in a letter that he had given up.

In a letter to Alexander Van der Bellen, Herbert Kickl, head of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), blamed the failure of talks with the Austrian People's Party (OVP) over cabinet portfolios.

The parties had been negotiating the formation of a new government for more than a month.

Kickl's press release included the letter he sent Wednesday criticizing the OVP for prioritizing portfolios over other contentious issues, particularly the demand for the Finance and Defense ministries.

“Although we made many concessions to the OVP during the talks, the negotiations were ultimately unsuccessful, much to our regret,” he said.

Kickl was tasked by Austria's federal president with forming a government in January after coalition talks between the OVP, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO), and the liberal NEOS party failed.

The FPO emerged as the strongest party in last September’s parliamentary elections with 28.85% of the vote.

Nonetheless, Van der Bellen initially entrusted the formation of the government to former Federal Chancellor and OVP party leader Karl Nehammer.