Austria’s wait for govt ends

VIENNA:

Austria’s first three-party government since the aftermath of World War Two took office on Monday, ending the country’s longest-ever wait for a ruling coalition and keeping the Russia-friendly, far-right Freedom Party (FPO) out of power.

Although the FPO won September’s parliamentary election with about 29% of the vote, the eurosceptic party failed to form a workable coalition, opening the door to a centrist alternative.

When the FPO bid crumbled, the conservative People’s Party (OVP), Social Democrats (SPO) and liberal Neos struck an alliance, overcoming their own earlier failure to do a deal. “Now it is about cooperation, it is about getting things done,” President Alexander Van der Bellen said as he swore in the new cabinet, hinting at concerns that a three-way coalition could prove fragile since two-party ones already have a habit of collapsing, as last happened in 2019 and 2017.

Had the latest centrist coalition effort failed, there would have been few alternatives to a snap election, which polls suggested would have increased the FPO’s share of the vote