By Francois Murphy
VIENNA (Reuters) -The new, interim leader of Austria’s conservatives demanded assurances from the far right on Wednesday that they want to keep Austria free from Russian interference, laying out potential flashpoints as they head into coalition talks.
The eurosceptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO) won September’s parliamentary election with around 29% of the vote and now has a chance to lead a government for the first time since it was founded in the 1950s under a leader who had been a senior SS officer and Nazi lawmaker.
After a centrist attempt to form a ruling coalition without the FPO failed last weekend, President Alexander Van der Bellen asked FPO leader Herbert Kickl to form a government.
Interim People’s Party (OVP) leader Christian Stocker has agreed to enter coalition talks but laid out his own demands.
“We want no (Austrian) dependence, particularly on the Russian Federation,” Stocker told a press conference, confirming he had accepted Kickl’s invitation to hold talks but without saying when they would meet.
“An honest answer must be given (in the talks) as to whether we are aligned with the free world or dictatorships. And an honest answer must also be given as to whether we put the state as a whole above party interests,” he said, responding to Kickl’s demand on Tuesday that their talks be “honest”.
The FPO, an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz, opposes European Union aid for Ukraine as it resists Russia’s full-scale invasion, as well as denouncing sanctions against Moscow as counterproductive. It says Austria’s stance in favour of those violates the country’s neutrality.
Without mentioning Russia by name, Stocker said there had been attempts to influence elections in Europe and to spread disinformation through internet platforms and social media.
He also listed priorities that appear to be in direct opposition with the FPO’s, such as a stronger European Union and independent media.
The FPO wants to overhaul state subsidies for media that focus on established outlets with higher journalism standards. It also wants to scrap the compulsory levy that funds state broadcaster ORF, which it accuses of having a left-wing bias and attempting to “indoctrinate” viewers.
Kickl has threatened Stocker with a snap election if the talks are too difficult, a move that would favour the FPO at the moment since opinion polls show its support has only grown since September, extending its lead over the OVP to more than 10 percentage points.
Earlier on Wednesday, Van der Bellen’s office said Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg would take over as caretaker chancellor on Friday from Karl Nehammer, who announced when the coalition talks he was leading collapsed that he would step down both as head of the government and as OVP leader.
The current conservative-led government is serving in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy and Madeline Chambers; Editing by Bernadette Baum, William Maclean, Alexandra Hudson)
