Government formation in Austria 2019

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Sebastian Kurz (2016)
Werner Kogler (2019)
ÖVP
The Greens - The Green Alternative

The negotiations for the formation of a government in Austria in 2019 followed the early election of the National Council on September 29 . First of all, exploratory talks between representatives of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), which emerged from the election as the strongest force and whose chairman Sebastian Kurz had already acted as Chancellor from December 2017 to May 2019 , took place between October 8 and November 8 the other four parties represented in the National Council.

On November 18, the ÖVP and the Greens started negotiations on the formation of a new government based on a turquoise-green coalition . On January 1, 2020, an agreement was reached between the two parties, which was also approved by the responsible bodies of both parties. On January 7th, the Federal Government Kurz II was sworn in.

Such constellations as Black-Green coalition had previously already on countries - where and community level, but a realization at the federal level is a novelty in Austrian politics. Coalition talks between the ÖVP and the Greens already took place after the National Council election in 2002 , but no agreement could be reached at that time.

Starting position

As a result of the National Council election held in September , the top candidate and party chairman of the party with the most votes in the new National Council , ÖVP boss Kurz, was commissioned by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen to form a government one week after the election, on October 7, 2019 .

In order to have a parliamentary majority of 92 seats, three two-party coalitions were possible:

  • ÖVP + SPÖ = 111 seats
  • ÖVP + FPÖ = 102 seats
  • ÖVP + Greens = 97 seats

After the one and a half years of the ÖVP-FPÖ government coalition, which lasted until the Ibiza affair in May 2019, there was an alternative to a government with FPÖ participation, but also a government constellation apart from the previous grand coalition (ÖVP and SPÖ ): For the second time since the National Council election in 2002 , a two-party coalition made up of the ÖVP and the Greens was mathematically possible. The Greens had gained 10 percentage points. Since the Fridays for Future movement and the discussions about climate change had also taken up a large amount of media space in Austria , the coalition consisting of the two election winners, the ÖVP and the Greens, was considered likely.

The Greens were no longer represented in the National Council after the 2017 election - also due to the spin-off of the Pilz list - and after the surprisingly high election success in 2019 they reorganized their party team with a view to possible government participation.

A coalition of the ÖVP only with the NEOS would not have had a majority in parliament (ÖVP + NEOS = 86 seats), this party would only have come into question as a third partner.

Exploratory talks

On October 8, 2019, Sebastian Kurz began exploratory talks with the party leaders of the other parties represented in parliament, Pamela Rendi-Wagner  (SPÖ), Norbert Hofer  (FPÖ), Werner Kogler (The Greens) and Beate Meinl-Reisinger  (NEOS). The exploratory talks before the actual government negotiations have been common in Austrian domestic politics since 2000.

Elisabeth Köstinger , Gernot Blümel , Stefan Steiner , Margarete Schramböck and August Wöginger briefly nominated for his team for the government negotiations . Köstinger, Blümel and Steiner were already part of the steering group in 2017 .

At the end of the first week after the election, on October 11, 2019, FPÖ boss Norbert Hofer announced that he would end the exploratory talks with the ÖVP for the time being. A minus of around 10 percentage points in the election would not show the will of the voters to participate freely in government.

The SPÖ negotiating team consisted of Pamela Rendi-Wagner, Peter Kaiser , Doris Bures , Rainer Wimmer , Jörg Leichtfried and Michael Ludwig . The SPÖ ended the talks after a first meeting because they did not agree with the parallel talks with other parties.

In addition to Beate Meinl-Reisinger, the NEOS exploration team consisted of Sepp Schellhorn , Nikolaus Scherak , Andrea Klambauer , Nick Donig and Robert Luschnik . NEOS ended the talks on October 24, 2019 after the second meeting; further explorations until real government negotiations were considered unnecessary.

Werner Kogler announced his exploration team on October 15, 2019. In addition to himself, this consisted of Birgit Hebein , Leonore Gewessler , Rudolf Anschober , Alma Zadić and Josef Meichenitsch. Despite major differences in the content of the election manifestos, the two parties agreed very quickly on five key issues: education , migration , economy , transparency and the climate crisis . Both sides described the discussion climate as positive.

The exploratory talks were declared ended on November 8, 2019. The Greens decided in the Extended Federal Executive Committee on November 10th to enter into government negotiations. Kurz announced the same for the ÖVP - after talks within the party as a unanimous decision - the next day.

Coalition negotiations

On November 15, 2019, it was announced that the teams for a total of 36 negotiating groups had been put together. More than 100 negotiators tried from November 18, 2019 in six main groups and 30 specialist groups to put together a government program.

Main group state, society and transparency

Main group economics and finance

Main group climate protection, environment, infrastructure and agriculture

Main group Europe, integration, migration, security

Main group Social Security, New Justice and Poverty Reduction

Main group education, science, research and digitization

Agreement and government program

On January 1, 2020, an agreement was reached between the two parties, for which the Greens still had to obtain the approval of their base bodies.

The negotiated government program was presented on January 2nd. Kurz spoke of the fact that it was "not a minimum compromise" of the sometimes very distant basic positions of the two coalition partners, but "the best of both worlds". Some topics are primarily influenced by the ÖVP, others primarily by the Greens. This would enable both parties to “keep their central election promises ”.

On January 3, the ÖVP federal party executive and the extended federal executive of the Greens voted for the government pact. On January 4th, 93.18 percent of the delegates at the Green Federal Congress also voted for the coalition.

On January 7, 2020, the Federal Government Kurz II was sworn in by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Schausberger : Barometer, Memo and Homemade. "Secondary elections" during the time of the Schüssel I and II governments. In: Robert Kriechbaumer , Franz Schausberger (ed.): The controversial turn. Austria 2000-2006. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2013, ISBN 978-3-205-78745-7 , p. 89.
  2. Official mandate: Kurz should form a new government. In: ORF.at , October 7, 2019.
  3. Turquoise-green is the favorite - but the FPÖ remains in the game. In: Der Standard online, October 11, 2019.
  4. Green in, mushroom out: Newly grounded. In: Der Standard online, September 29, 2019.
  5. Kurz 'timetable for finding a partner. In: ORF.at , October 7, 2019.
  6. Michael Jungwirth: Coalition Talks: This is Kurz's team for government negotiations. In: Small newspaper . October 12, 2019, accessed October 13, 2019 .
  7. Kurz wants to continue exploring from Wednesday, FPÖ out of the race for the time being. In: Der Standard online, October 10, 2019.
  8. ^ Coalition: Ludwig completes the SPÖ negotiating team. In: Kurier.at . October 16, 2019, accessed October 16, 2019 .
  9. Rendi-Wagner wants exclusive talks with ÖVP - Dornauer against SPÖ ultimatums. In: Der Standard online, October 18, 2019.
  10. ^ Formation of a government: starting signal for the explorations. In: Wiener Zeitung. October 16, 2019, accessed October 16, 2019 .
  11. NEOS withdraws from explorations. In: ORF.at. October 24, 2019, accessed October 24, 2019 .
  12. Neos are also getting out of explorations - ÖVP is now “focusing” on greens. In: DerStandard.at. October 24, 2019, accessed October 24, 2019 .
  13. Green fix exploratory team. In: ORF.at. October 15, 2019, accessed October 15, 2019 .
  14. Sticking points between the ÖVP and the Greens. In: ORF.at , October 29, 2019.
  15. Agreement on five “challenges” for turquoise-green. In: Wiener Zeitung online, October 31, 2019.
  16. ↑ End of exploration: ÖVP and Greens do not commit. In: ORF.at , November 8, 2019.
  17. Greens for negotiations with ÖVP. In: ORF.at , November 10, 2019.
  18. ^ ÖVP for coalition negotiations with the Greens. In: ORF.at , November 11, 2019.
  19. ↑ The names of more than 100 turquoise-green negotiators have been determined. In: DerStandard.at . November 15, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  20. More than 100 negotiators in 30 specialist groups start "immediately". In: Upper Austrian news . November 16, 2019, accessed on November 16, 2019 (with a link to PDF with the negotiating groups).
  21. More than 100 negotiators for turquoise-green. In: The press . November 15, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  22. New government Kurz and Kogler presented an agreement. In: ORF.at . January 1, 2020, accessed on January 4, 2020.
  23. a b That is in the government program; Government Program - The Big Chunks for the Coalition; and How Kurz and Kogler presented themselves. Live ticker; all ORF online, January 2, 2019
    - Quotes by Sebastian Kurz, press conference on the government program and team from Türkis-Grün, approx. 4 p.m., Jesuit theater in the auditorium of the Old University of Vienna.
  24. Greens: Extended Federal Board unanimously in favor of a government pact. In: kurier.at . January 3, 2020, accessed on January 4, 2020.
  25. Green Congress clearly votes for coalition. In: ORF.at . January 4, 2020, accessed on January 4, 2020.
  26. Austrian President's Office : AVISO: appointment and swearing-in of government - accreditation. In: APA-OTS. January 4, 2020, accessed on January 5, 2020 (press release).