Austria’s new government takes office after a record 5-month wait

Austria's new three-party coalition government faces challenges of unemployment, recession, and budget issues, led by Chancellor Christian Stocker.

Austria’s new government took office on Monday (March 3, 2025), with Christian Stocker taking over as Chancellor at the head of a previously untried three-party coalition after a record five-month wait for a new administration.

The new government will have to deal with rising unemployment, a recession and a creaking budget. Its coalition agreement, reached on Thursday after the longest negotiations in post-World War II Austria, foresees strict new asylum rules in the European Union country of 9 million people.

“I stand in front of you today with great respect for the tasks that await, and I am very well aware of the great responsibility that comes with these tasks,” Mr. Stocker said at a handover ceremony. “I aspire to be a chancellor for everyone.”

This is the country’s first three-party government, bringing together Mr. Stocker’s conservative Austrian People’s Party, the center-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos. The alliance in the political center came together only at the second attempt, after the far-right, anti-immigration and euroskeptic Freedom Party emerged as the strongest political force in a parliamentary election on Sept. 29.

A first attempt collapsed in early January, prompting the resignation of then-Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who had said that his party wouldn’t work under Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl.

Mr. Stocker took over from Nehammer as leader of the People’s Party and went into negotiations with Kickl on a possible coalition, but those collapsed on Feb. 12 amid mutual finger-pointing.

The three parties in the center then renewed their effort to find common ground, heading off the possibility of an early election. On Sunday, the coalition deal received strong backing from members of Neos, which is entering a federal government for the first time — the final step before the government could take office.