Austrian president tasks far-right leader with forming government

FPO leader Herbert Kickl gets mandate to try to lead a government, which would be the first headed by the far right since World War II.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen has tasked the leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Herbert Kickl, with forming a coalition government after a centrist bid to assemble one without the FPO collapsed unexpectedly over the weekend.

Monday’s announcement marks a dramatic reversal by the president, a former leader of the left-wing Greens who has long been critical of the FPO and has clashed with Kickl, but few options remained for him after the centrists failed to forge a coalition.

The eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO won last September’s parliamentary election with 29 percent of the vote.

It will now enter talks with its only potential partner, the conservative People’s Party (OVP), seeking to lead a government for the first time since it was founded in the 1950s under a leader who had been a senior officer in Hitler’s elite paramilitary SS.

“I have … tasked him with launching talks with the People’s Party to form a government,” Van der Bellen said in a televised address after meeting Kickl, adding: “I did not take this step lightly.”