Austrian far-right leader’s efforts to form a new government collapse

By AP 12 February 2025, 4:57 pm

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The leader of Austria's Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, arrives at his party's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader)

Austrian far-right leader Herbert Kickl says that his talks on forming a coalition government with a conservative party have collapsed.

Austria’s president gave Kickl a mandate to try to form a new government on Jan. 6 after other parties’ efforts to put together a governing alliance without his Freedom Party failed.

But his talks with the conservative Austrian People’s Party appeared increasingly troubled in recent days, with constant talk of policy differences and a clash over who would get which ministries.

Today, Kickl informs President Alexander Van der Bellen that he was giving up the mandate to form what would have been the first national government headed by the far right since World War II.