Austria thus remains without a new government 136 days or four and a half months after the National Council election. The formation of the government, which is now accompanied by the second failed coalition negotiations, has already reached a historic record duration in the history of the Second Republic. Never before has it taken so long from election day to the swearing-in of a new government.

Coalition Negotiations Between FPÖ and ÖVP Lasted 33 Days

The government negotiations between FPÖ and ÖVP lasted a total of 33 days before they were now declared unsuccessfully ended. The initially demonstratively displayed fast pace - within three days they agreed on a common budget path - could not be maintained by the blue-turquoise negotiators. Even more than a month after the start on January 10, numerous contentious points remained unresolved. Previously, ÖVP, SPÖ, and NEOS had unsuccessfully negotiated for 44 days about forming a three-party coalition. After NEOS withdrew, ÖVP and SPÖ negotiated for one more day before the People's Party announced the end of the government negotiations on day 45.

The government formation was also prolonged this time by the fact that the mandate to form a government was only given by the Federal President about three weeks after the election. In view of the refusal of all parties to govern with the FPÖ under Herbert Kickl, the head of state Alexander Van der Bellen initially tasked the leader of the second-placed ÖVP, Karl Nehammer, with forming a government after several rounds of talks. After his failure, the mandate was given to Kickl on the 99th day after the election.

Historically Longest Government Formation

Since last week, the government formation has been the historically longest since 1945. Previously, the record length was 129 days between election day and swearing-in. It took that long after the National Council election in 1962 for ÖVP and SPÖ to reluctantly agree - one last time before the phase of single-party governments - on a new edition of the Grand Coalition. The government under Chancellor Alfons Gorbach (ÖVP) was appointed by Federal President Adolf Schärf on March 27, 1963, 129 days after the election.

In third place for the longest government formations is now that of the first black-blue coalition. 25 years ago, it took a total of 124 days for it to take office. At that time, weeks of coalition negotiations between SPÖ and ÖVP failed, after which ÖVP and FPÖ agreed within two weeks on the - already pre-built - first black-blue coalition under ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.