Black-blue coalition

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ÖVP
FPÖ

In Austria, the black-blue coalition or turquoise-blue coalition refers to a collaboration between the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP, black, since 2017 also turquoise) and the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ, blue). While such coalitions no longer existed at state level, they came into being nationwide for the first time from February 2000 to April 2005 ( Cabinet Schüssel I and II ). In Upper Austria there has been a black and blue labor agreement since October 2015 within the framework of a proportional government .

In Germany , the term has not yet been used in the same way, because none of the established parties is associated with the color blue and a coalition with the alternative for Germany , which uses the color, has so far been excluded. In retrospect, historical constellations were occasionally referred to as such, for example the collaboration between the Catholic Center Party and Protestant conservatives in Württemberg in the 1920s.

Federal level

Early 2000s (Schüssel / Haider)

In the 1999 National Council elections , the then Social Democratic Chancellor Viktor Klima was unable to form a government coalition capable of acting, so that, for the first time in Austria's history, an alliance between the ÖVP and the FPÖ came about. They won the same number of seats in the National Council in the elections, but the FPÖ under Jörg Haider received around 400 votes (0.01%) more than the ÖVP. Occasionally one spoke of “blue-black”. Nevertheless, the ÖVP provided the Federal Chancellor and half of the ministers, the FPÖ received the office of Vice Chancellor and important ministerial offices such as the finance, social, justice and national defense ministries and state secretaries. After the early elections in 2002 , in which the ÖVP emerged as the strongest party for the first time since 1966 and the FPÖ lost massive votes, the cooperation between ÖVP and FPÖ continued, but with some losses in the previous FP ministries and FP state secretaries.

The black-blue coalition led by Wolfgang Schüssel (2000 to 2005, Kabinette Schüssel I and from 2003 II ) was the first of its kind at the federal level and after 13 years ended the grand coalition between ÖVP and SPÖ that was last blocked in its work . Haider himself did not belong to this government, but remained governor in Carinthia . Since the split of the FPÖ on April 4, 2005 into FPÖ-old and Haider's BZÖ one spoke of a black-orange coalition , since the party color of the BZÖ, which took over the coalition agreement, was orange.

The government carried out numerous reforms , but met with some severe rejection in Austria. It is discussed controversially to this day, while the bourgeoisie emphasized the numerous reform agendas and called Schüssel the turning chancellor . There was also great international rejection (see also EU-XIV sanctions against Austria ), the figure Haider was always seen more threateningly abroad than in Austria itself, where he primarily appeared as a Carinthian regional politician. As it became known later, however, there were numerous corruption scandals , especially on the part of the FPÖ government members ( Karl-Heinz Grasser's homepage and Novomatic affair, contracts awarded by Hubert Gorbach and the BUWOG affair , the Terminal Tower - and the Tetron affair , the procurement of the Eurofighter , as well as several telecom affairs ), some of which are still pending processing. The Hypo-Alpe-Adria -Affaire (settlement of the house bank of the federal state), on the other hand, belongs primarily to the Haider regional government of these years.

Late 2010

In the run-up to the National Council elections in Austria in 2008 , black and blue was not explicitly rejected by ÖVP top candidate Wilhelm Molterer , but cooperation was considered difficult due to major differences in European and socio-political issues. FPÖ candidate Heinz-Christian Strache accused the People's Party several times of “social icebox policy” and made no secret of seeing more agreements with the SPÖ.

After the National Council election in 2013 , ÖVP chairman Michael Spindelegger again concluded a grand coalition despite disagreements with the SPÖ , as the number of mandates from the ÖVP and FPÖ did not secure a majority and the Stronach team was not viewed by the ÖVP as a realistic coalition partner due to its instability.

ÖVP logo (since 2017)

Government Turquoise-Blue I: 2017 After the National Council election in 2017 , from which the ÖVP emerged as the strongest party, Sebastian Kurz started coalition negotiations with the FPÖ. The formation of a turquoise- blue government (change of party color at federal level) had already been considered possible before the election. On December 15, Kurz and Strache announced that they had agreed on an intergovernmental agreement; the Federal Government of Kurz I was appointed on December 18, 2017.

Resignation Strache On Friday, May 17, 2019 at 6 p.m., a video was published by Süddeutsche Zeitung and Spiegel in which HC Strache can be seen together with his confidante Johann Gudenus in a villa on Ibiza. The video dates from 2017 and was secretly recorded shortly before the National Council election. The two named were in conversation with a supposed niece of a Russian oligarch. This video caused such a stir that Vice Chancellor HC Strache resigned from all offices on the following day, including Vice Chancellor and party leadership. The party leadership took over Norbert Hofer. Johann Gudenus also resigned.

On May 18, 2019, Chancellor Kurz announced that he would dismiss Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, whereupon all FPÖ ministers resigned and thus ended the coalition. This means that turquoise-blue lasted less than a year and a half in 2017-2019.

Country level

Vorarlberg

At the state level there was a black-blue cooperation from 1974 to 2009, although the ÖVP always achieved an absolute majority . However, there was a real coalition only between 1999 and 2004. Before the state elections in Vorarlberg in 2009 , Governor Herbert Sausgruber ruled out a continuation of the cooperation after an anti-Semitic statement by the FPÖ top candidate Dieter Egger . In the following legislative period, the ÖVP ruled alone with an absolute majority, since its loss in 2014 together with the Greens .

Carinthia

Since the proportional system still existed in Carinthia until 2017 , there have been no real coalition governments. Nevertheless, there was several cooperation between the ÖVP and the FPÖ. After the SPÖ had provided the governor for 44 years, the MPs of the People's Party elected Jörg Haider as the first FPÖ governor in 1989 . Two years later, Haider was voted out of office because of a right-wing extremist statement by motion of no confidence and Christof Zernatto (ÖVP) was elected with SPÖ votes . It was not until 18 years later that a black and blue labor agreement came about again. In 2009, the FPÖ's top candidate Mario Canori named a cooperation with the BZÖ as a desired coalition, and if these two parties did not have a majority, an additional involvement of the ÖVP would be possible. After the Freedom Party in Carinthia had won the state elections in 2009 as part of the BZÖ and Gerhard Dörfler was elected governor with the votes of the FPÖ and ÖVP, the regional group split off from the BZÖ and began cooperation with the Federal FPÖ.

Upper Austria

With the provincial government Pühringer V , a provincial government with a black-and-blue labor agreement was elected and sworn in for the first time on October 23, 2015 by the Upper Austrian state parliament . After Pühringer's departure in April 2017, the labor agreement was continued within the Stelzer state government .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Steinbach , Dieter Langewiesche : The German Southwest: Regional Traditions and Historical Identities (1800-2000). Hans-Georg Wehling on his 70th birthday , Kohlhammer 2007, p. 71, online in Google books
  2. ↑ Andreas foods, Werner Relleck, Reinhold Weber parties in the German states: Past and Present ., CH Beck 2010, p 109f, online at Google Books
  3. ^ Exiled Jews-Sager: Sausgruber excludes coalition with FPÖ. In: DiePresse.com. August 24, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2018 .
  4. ^ Kurier: Men's Union rules Upper Austria . Article dated October 21, 2015, accessed October 22, 2015.