“No games, no tricks, no sabotage.” Herbert Kickl sounded like he was beginning a ransom negotiation rather than coalition talks last week after receiving the go-ahead from Austria’s president to try to form a government three months after winning parliamentary elections.
The far-right leader undoubtedly has the whip hand in negotiations with the centre-right People’s party (ÖVP), whose own coalition efforts collapsed earlier this month. Any messing around, Kickl threatened, would lead to a fresh vote and, the polls suggest, a crushing victory for his Freedom party (FPÖ) over the conservatives.
Kickl won’t have it all his own way. The ÖVP insists on him agreeing to safeguards to protect press freedom, maintain a constructive relationship with the EU and keep up support for Ukraine. But the centre-right is not showing much backbone. Christian Stocker, the new ÖVP leader, last autumn described Kickl’s FPÖ as “not only a threat to democracy, but an equally great threat to Austria’s security”. A few months on, there is no such compunction.