Austria: Chancellor Nehammer Resigns

Karl Nehammer (pictured) will resign as Austria’s federal chancellor in the coming days, as well as the leadership of his People’s Party (ÖVP). Nehammer announced this political crisis in Austria with a post on X social network after the failed negotiations with the Social Democrats and the small centrist Neos party to form a new “three-party” government.

The talks collapsed on Friday, January 3, after the Neos party unexpectedly pulled out of the negotiations. Nehammer has been Austria’s chancellor since late 2021 and has been in talks with the other two parties since October 2024 to try to form a government coalition to exclude the winner of Austria’s general election, the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), from the “triangle.”

Austria’s general election (see chart below the news) was held on September 29 and was won by Herbert Kickl’s FPÖ with 29% of the vote. The Austrian Freedom Party was excluded from the voting because no Austrian party agreed to be in coalition with it, so Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen instructed Nehammer’s ÖVP to form a new government.

To keep the right-wing out of power, the country’s two historic parties, the Nehammer People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democrats (SPÖ), attempted to form a government with the small liberal-centrist Neos formation. Beate Meinl-Reisinger, leader of the Neos party, refused to participate in the talks, saying the other two “mainstream” parties had consistently rejected the economic and financial reforms proposed by Neos, which Meinl-Reisinger herself called “fundamental.” Following the collapse of the “triangle” on Saturday night (January 4), Nehammer also excluded the Social Democrats from a possible coalition because, in his view, “destructive forces have prevailed in the party” in opposition to the coalition. According to the Austrian press, “the Social Democrats and the People’s Party actually have very different positions on various issues.”

As the Viennese newspaper Kronen Zeitung wrote on Sunday, “it is unclear whether other parties will now try to form a coalition or whether new elections will be held: this depends above all on the decision of Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen, who in this situation of political crisis will have to address the nation after receiving the formal announcement of Nehammer’s resignation.”