“We have negotiated honestly and for a long time,” Nehammer said in a statement on X on Saturday. “No agreement is possible with the SPÖ on key points,” he added.
“The People’s Party stands by its promises: We will not agree to measures that are hostile to benefits and business, nor to new taxes,” Nehammer said. “We are therefore ending negotiations with the SPÖ,” he said.
“I will stand down as chancellor and as leader of the People’s Party in the coming days and enable an orderly transition,” Nehammer said.
The collapse of the talks, which formally started in November, will strengthen the hand of the anti-migrant, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPÖ), which surged to first place in September’s national election but has been blocked from forming a government, with all other major parties refusing to work with it.
On Friday, FPÖ General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz had called on Nehammer to step down after the withdrawal of NEOS. “The FPÖ has been warning for months about this political monstrosity of the loser-traffic-light coalition based on the German model,” Schnedlitz said.
Seb Starcevic contributed to this report.
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