Posted on 10/20/2017 5:28:53 AM PDT by markomalley
Austria’s president gave the green light to conservative leader Sebastian Kurz on Friday to form a government, but Kurz gave little away about his coalition plans, leaving a tie-up with the far right the most likely outcome.
Kurz’s People’s Party (OVP) secured 31.5 percent of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary election, winning by a clear margin but falling well short of the majority needed to control parliament in the affluent Alpine republic.
“I would like to build a government that has the courage and determination to bring real change to Austria,” Kurz, 31, told reporters after meeting President Alexander Van der Bellen, who will oversee the process.
Kurz campaigned on a platform that combined a hard line on immigration similar to that of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) with traditional conservative principles like slimming down the state and cutting taxes.
He said he would start by holding talks with all parties in parliament although only two of them, the Social Democrats (SPO) and FPO, have enough seats to give him a majority if they go into coalition with the OVP.
“I will now get straight to work and hold the first discussions, definitely in the coming days, and possibly even today,” Kurz said, adding that after those initial discussions he might launch formal coalition talks with one party.
(Excerpt) Read more at oann.com ...
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