Free Republic

Breaking from tradition, the populist Freedom Party will not be given a chance to form a government despite winning last month’s elections. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen announced Tuesday that incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer would be granted the chance to form a new government, despite his centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) coming in second place at 26 per cent of the vote behind the Freedom Party of Austria’s (FPÖ) 29 per cent. The 80-year-old president argued that even though tradition dictates that the winner be given the first crack at forming a coalition because the other parties have ruled...

Austria’s Social Democratic Chancellor stood down in a shock announcement this morning amid collapsing support for traditional parties in the country, in a move which has been called “a beautiful day for Austria” by his insurgent nationalist opponents. Socialist-left Chancellor Werner Faymann’s Social Democratic Party of Austria failed to even make it to the second round of voting in last month’s presidential elections, as citizens voted overwhelmingly for candidates from alternative political movements. Just one in ten Austrians voted for the party in government. After the count, only Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party of Austria and Alexander Van der...