Most of the coalition negotiations initiated after the total of 24 National Council elections of the Second Republic were successfully concluded. Before the current series of failed negotiations, coalition negotiations had only failed three times - most recently in 2002 between the ÖVP and the Greens.

After the ÖVP's landslide victory in the National Council election in November 2002, ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel, who was tasked with forming the government, initially conducted weeks of parallel exploratory talks with the SPÖ, FPÖ, and Greens before deciding to enter into coalition negotiations with the Greens. Finally, on February 10, 2003, the week-long negotiation marathon began. After a 16-hour negotiation round, the then Green leader Alexander Van der Bellen declared the failure of the Black-Green coalition at 6 a.m. on February 16. After "intensified" talks with the SPÖ, the ÖVP entered into coalition negotiations with the FPÖ a week later, and just five days later, Black-Blue II was established and sworn in on the same day.

Schüssel was also involved in the collapse of coalition talks three years earlier. After the National Council election in the fall of 1999, the third-placed ÖVP initially wanted to go into opposition as announced during the election campaign, but then negotiated for weeks with the SPÖ of Viktor Klima, who was tasked with forming the government, about a joint government. These failed, meanwhile, ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel had already been negotiating in parallel with the Freedom Party, and the official Black-Blue coalition negotiations were then successfully concluded within a few days.

ÖVP-SPÖ Negotiations Also Failed in 1966

Previously, the failure of coalition negotiations in Austria was practically unknown. Only after the National Council election in 1966 did coalition negotiations between the ÖVP and SPÖ fail. The ÖVP had regained the absolute majority for the first time since 1945, yet negotiations for a coalition government with the SPÖ lasted six weeks before Josef Klaus formed the first single-party government of the Second Republic on April 19, 1966. During the four subsequent SPÖ single-party governments under Bruno Kreisky, coalition negotiations were dispensed with.

Since 1983, there have been coalition governments again. The negotiations of the two coalition parties, which were always present until the most recent election, were mostly successfully concluded, even if the path was not always easy. For example, in 2006, the coalition negotiations between the SPÖ and ÖVP, which were negotiating a Grand Coalition for the first time after seven years of Black-Blue, were suspended after the National Council set up the Eurofighter investigation committee against the will of the ÖVP. After a two-week break, the negotiations were resumed. However, the government finally agreed upon under Alfred Gusenbauer (SPÖ) did not even last two years.

Government Formation Mandate Returned for Only the Third Time

After Karl Nehammer, Herbert Kickl also returned the mandate to form a government, given by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, on Wednesday without success. This mandate is not stipulated in the constitution but is a practiced tradition. The appointed individuals have almost always succeeded in forming a government, with few exceptions. Before Kickl, only Nehammer and Viktor Klima had to make this journey to the presidential office 25 years ago.

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(APA/Red)

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