Austria in crisis could return to voting in May

‘Wie geht es weiter?’ (‘How will it go on?’). It is the question that is the most popular between last night and this morning the nine Austrian Laender after the announcements resignation of Chancellor Karl Nehammer and of his farewell also from the leadership of the OeVP party. In these hours the OeVP management is taking stock of the situation also to identify a new leader.

Among the various names as Nehammer’s successor, the minister Karoline Edtstadlerthe general secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, Wolfgang Hattmannsdorferwho ruled Upper Austria with the FPOe for many years, and the former chancellor himself Sebastian Kurz. The latter, however, according to the conservative Kurier newspaper, would no longer be available.

There is talk of an interim OeVP president and this could be the current general secretary Christian Stocker. The situation in Austria is not the best, a 2025 that started with a strong bang for domestic politics. Today the speech to the Nation by the Bundespraesident, Alexander van der Bellen, who is currently in his study at the Hofburg, is expected.

After almost 100 days of talks what could have been the three-party coalition, in less than 24 hours, first the Neos threw in the towel and then OeVP and SPOe (the social democrats) closed off any possible agreement and, therefore, on continuing the negotiations. Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger explained that the critical points with OeVP and SPOe were, pensions, federalism, budget consolidation, education. In Austria the hypothesis of new elections is becoming increasingly insistent. There are those who estimate the timing for new national votes on May 4th.