Reuters — The conservative Sebastian Kurz emerged victorious from Austrian election and now has formed a coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party , making Austria the only western European country with a far-right party in government after the anti-immigration FPO and Sebastian Kurz’s conservatives struck a coalition deal to share power almost equally.
In an early policy pronouncement, Kurz, the future chancellor, said the new government would not hold a referendum on European Union membership.
Kurz, who is just 31, and Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache announced their deal on Friday night, handing the far right a share of power for the third time in the Alpine republic, after more than a decade in opposition.
The FPO will take control of much of Austria’s security apparatus, in charge of the foreign, interior and defense ministries. The People’s Party (OVP) led by Kurz will control the powerful finance ministry as well the justice and agriculture portfolios.
“No one need be afraid,” Austrian news agency APA quoted the incoming interior minister and chairman of the FPO, Herbert Kickl, as saying. Kickl began his career as a speechwriter for the late Joerg Haider, who praised Adolf Hitler’s employment policies and led the party to its first mainstream electoral success.
Kurz has repeatedly said his government will be pro-European despite including the FPO, which was founded by former Nazis and campaigned against Austria joining the bloc when it was put to a referendum in 1994.
The coalition plans to make referendums more widely available. Unlike France’s National Front, the FPO has backed away from calling for a referendum on leaving the European Union but Kurz obtained a guarantee that a Brexit-style vote will not be held.
Kurz’s office will also take over some European departments from the FPO-run foreign ministry to give him greater control over EU matters.
The 180-page coalition agreement listed plans such as sinking taxes and cutting public spending through streamlined administration though it often did not say how such goals would be achieved.
Austria’s parliamentary election two months ago was dominated by Europe’s migration crisis, in which the affluent country took in a large number of asylum seekers.
“We both recognize about 75 percent of ourselves in the program,” said Strache, who accused Kurz during the campaign of stealing his party’s ideas. “That might have something to do with the fact that one or the other maybe took on the other’s policy points before the election.”
Anti-establishment parties have been winning over more voters in Europe, capitalizing on dissatisfaction with mainstream politicians’ handling of the economy, security and immigration.
“It is excellent news for Europe,” Marine Le Pen said of the coalition deal at a Prague meeting of her National Front party’s European grouping, which includes the FPO. “These successes show that the nation states are the future, that the Europe of tomorrow is a Europe of the people.”
Both the OVP and FPO believe the EU should focus on fewer tasks, like securing its external borders, and hand more power back to member states.
When the FPO last entered government in 2000 other EU countries imposed sanctions on Vienna in protest. There is unlikely to be a similar outcry this time, given the rise of anti-establishment parties across the continent.
