Vienna [Austria], January 7: Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen has officially tasked the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) with forming a government.
Van der Bellen made the announcement at a press conference in Vienna on Monday after a meeting with FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl.
The way was cleared for the FPÖ potentially to lead an Austrian government for the first time after Christian Stocker, the newly designated leader of the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), said on Sunday that his party is prepared to engage in negotiations with Kickl.
Stocker was appointed by his party after Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced his resignation on Saturday following the collapse of previous coalition negotiations with centrist parties. During the conversation, Kickl assured him that he was confident of being able to fulfil the role of chancellor, van der Bellen said.
"Respect for the electorate's vote requires that the president respect the majority," even if he himself might have other wishes and ideas, van der Bellen said. "I did not take this step lightly," he said.
Van der Bellen and Kickl's hour-long meeting was accompanied by protests. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the presidential office to voice their opposition to the far-right taking power.
The International Auschwitz Committee reacted with dismay to the mandate received by the FPÖ to form a government in Vienna.
This mandate was given to a party that is "more involved in right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi thinking and activities than almost any other," the organization's Executive Vice President Christoph Heubner said on Monday.
This was "particularly difficult to bear for Holocaust survivors," he said. "For Holocaust survivors, this day marks another dark climax on the road to European oblivion."
It was painful that more and more voters are entrusting their votes to far-right parties and backing ideologies that plunged Europe into the abyss in the past, according to Heubner.
The International Auschwitz Committee was founded by survivors of the German Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The FPÖ won the parliamentary elections in September with just under 29% of the vote. While initially no one wanted to govern with the party, the dynamic changed as Nehammer struggled to form a coalition with parties in Austria's political mainstream.
Source: Qatar Tribune