Austria's chancellor Karl Nehammer to step down as coalition talks fail

The surprise move comes just one day after Austria's liberal party withdrew from three-party coalition talks to form a centrist government.

Austria's conservative chancellor Karl Nehammer said Saturday he would step down in the 'coming days' after breaking off coalition talks with the Social Democrats over disagreements on key issues.

FILE PHOTO: Austrian Chancellor and head of Peoples Party (OEVP) Karl Nehammer leaves a meeting with President Alexander Van der Bellen in Hofburg Palace in Vienna. (REUTERS)

Nehammer made the announcements in a video message and accompanying statement posted on the X platform.

"After the break-off of the coalition talks I am going to do the following: I will step down both as chancellor and party chairman of the People's Party in the coming days and enable an orderly transition," he said.

The surprise move comes just one day after Austria's liberal party withdrew from three-party coalition talks to form a centrist government. The aim had been to sideline the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which won the September 29 national elections.

The FPOe won 28.8 percent of the vote but has been unable to find partners to form a national government.

The conservative People's Party (OeVP) came second with 26.3 percent, while the centre-left Social Democrats (SPOe) won 21.1 percent.

That led Karl Nehammer to pursue talks with the SPOe and the liberal party NEOS to form a government to shut out the far right, but those three-way talks collapsed on Friday.

The remaining two centrist parties had vowed to continue their work.

But a day later, on Saturday, Nehammer announced on X that "agreement with the SPOe is not possible on key issues.

"We are therefore ending negotiations with the SPOe," Nehammer added.

On Friday, President Alexander Van der Bellen had called on the two parties to form a government "without delay".

A three-party governing coalition would have been a first since 1949 in Austria, which faces a flagging economy as and a ballooning budget deficit.

Nehammer had already warned that the coalition talks, which began in October -- initially without the liberals -- would be an uphill task.