Austria Forms Coalition Government Without Largest Party

Three centrist parties have collaborated in what has been labeled a ‘coalition of losers’ by the Freedom Party, which won the most votes in the 2024 election.

Andreas Babler, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Austria; Christian Stocker, leader of the Austria People's Party; and Beate Meinl-Reisinger, leader of the NEOS party, speak to the media following their agreement on the creation of a new coalition government in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 27, 2025. Michael Gruber/Getty Images

Three centrist parties in Austria have reached a deal to form a coalition government without the right-wing Freedom Party (FPO), five months after the FPO won the most votes in the parliamentary election.

The deal between the conservative People’s Party (OVP), Social Democrats (SPO), and liberal Neos Party brings to a close the longest wait for a new government in Vienna since the 1940s.

The parties first attempted to form a ruling coalition after the September 2024 election, but that collapsed in January, forcing the resignation of then-Chancellor Karl Nehammer of the OVP.

The Euroskeptic FPO was then given the chance to form a government.

That attempt also failed after divisions deepened between the FPO and OVP and discussion eventually fractured after issues of policy and personnel could not be agreed upon.

The FPO and OVP have previously worked in government together, but never with the former as the senior partner in a coalition.

The three-party government—the country’s first tripartite coalition since the late 1940s—is due to take office next week, provided all parties sign off on the deal.

OVP Leader Christian Stocker is to become chancellor while SPO leader Andreas Babler will take over the post of vice-chancellor.

The biggest obstacle to this will be passing a vote of members of the liberal Neos party on Sunday, at which a two-thirds majority is required.

FPO leader Herbert Kickl has dismissed the centrist triumvirate as a “coalition of losers” and called for a snap election.

“The first message this government has is ‘We are not Herbert Kickl, we prevented Herbert Kickl (from becoming chancellor)’,” political analyst Thomas Hofer told Reuters.

“That’s something, but it isn’t a forward-looking narrative.”

Hofer said they would likely need to produce more than the program to survive the five-year parliament.

Announcing the agreement, Stocker said that the challenges facing Austria are “historic and far-reaching,” pointing to the war in Ukraine, a budget nearing breaking point, and heavy pressures from high levels of illegal immigration.

The coalition deal, titled “Jetz das richtige tun,” or “Do the right thing now” in English, calls for strict new asylum rules in the country of 9 million people. It foresees setting up “return centers” to house rejected asylum-seekers and for suspending family reunions.

“Should the number of asylum applications increase, we reserve the right to impose an asylum freeze,” Stocker added.

Austria has recently been rocked by an attack perpetrated by an illegal immigrant, and last year saw authorities foil an Islamist-inspired attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. The lack of action on the issue is widely believed to have been a reason behind the FPO’s electoral success.

One of the first orders of business from the three parties planning to form the coalition was to set out their plans to avoid facing a European Union procedure for running an excess budget deficit, with measures including an increased levy on banks, on Thursday.

The coalition program presented by the parties envisaged increasing an existing banking tax so that it will bring in a purported 500 million euros ($524 million) annually in 2025 and 2026 and extending a windfall tax on energy companies to bring in what they say will be 200 million euros ($209 million) a year.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.