(Bloomberg) -- Austria’s centrist parties are entering formal negotiations on a three-way government coalition with the aim of broad-ranging policy change and sidelining the far-right Freedom Party.
The conservative People’s Party, the Social Democrats and liberal NEOS will enter detailed bargaining on policy after a round of initial talks, Chancellor Karl Nehammer told reporters in Vienna Monday.
The talks follow September elections, where the Freedom Party won the most seats for the first time. But no other party has offered to work with its leader Herbert Kickl, giving conservative party chief Nehammer a path to extending his tenure as chancellor.
A three-way alliance would come just after Germany’s coalition between the Social Democrats, Greens and liberal FDP fell apart. Convincing voters disenchanted with the political mainstream after years of fast inflation and coronavirus measures will be among the main challenges.
The government program will focus on boosting competitiveness, fighting illegal immigration, and improving social services and education.
A special negotiating team is also assessing needs for budget consolidation. Austria’s Fiscal Council sees the budget deficit widening to 4.1% of economic output next year from a projected 3.9% this year and 2.6% in 2023.
Blocking the far-right resembles political patterns across Europe. In Germany, the AfD won regional elections in Thuringia earlier this year, only for the other parties to refuse to engage with the party. A left-wing alliance in France stopped Marine Le Pen’s National Rally from scoring an election victory in July.
Meanwhile, Geert Wilders’s far-right group took power in the Netherlands as member of a four-party coalition, but Wilders himself isn’t part of the executive.
Austrian coalition negotiations have traditionally taken months, not weeks, so the talks could stretch into next year.
“We will aim to discuss as fast as possible, but as extensively as necessary,” Nehammer said. “A broad alliance of the middle can provide the stability needed for change.”
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