Austria’s leader is striving to fend off the hard right
Christian Stocker hopes competence will restore the centre-right’s popularity
On january 5th Christian Stocker drove to a leadership meeting of the People’s Party (ÖVP) wearing jeans, expecting to resign from his job as party secretary-general. Coalition talks with the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the liberal NEOS had failed; Karl Nehammer, the ÖVP leader and chancellor, had stepped down. Instead, a few hours later Mr Stocker emerged in a blue suit (quickly driven over from his home) to announce that as the acting party leader he would conduct talks with the hard-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) to form a government led by Herbert Kickl, the FPÖ’s head.
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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The accidental chancellor”
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