Austria heads for snap parliamentary election

VIENNA (AFP) — Austria’s new center-right leader Sebastian Kurz called on Sunday for snap elections, setting up another nail-biting vote in Europe that could see the far-right win power.

Speaking after being unanimously appointed head of the Austrian People’s Party (OeVP), Kurz called time on the governing coalition after months of in-fighting.

“The major decisions on the direction that this country takes must be taken by voters,” Kurz told reporters in Vienna.

He said that he would meet on Monday with Chancellor Christian Kern and the president to propose a joint parliamentary motion for elections to be held “after the summer.”

Austria’s unhappy “grand coalition” between Kern’s center-left Social Democrats (SPOe) and the centre-right OeVP is meant to govern until late 2018.

But after months of failing to agree much in the way of reforms to boost Austria’s lagging economy, the head of the OeVP, Reinhold Mitterlehner, resigned last Wednesday.

Two days later Kurz, who aged only 30 is seen as the rising star of Austrian politics, called for the coalition to pull the plug.

Earlier on Sunday Kern, 51, who has been chancellor for just a year, had said he was resigned to Austrians going to the polls in the autumn.

The OeVP “made it quite clear that they don’t want (to be in coalition) any more,” Kern said on public TV.

If the vote happens it will set up another tense election in Europe in 2017 following those in the Netherlands and France and others scheduled for Britain in June and Germany in September.

It could see Austria’s populist Freedom Party (FPOe), currently riding high in opinion polls, enter or even lead a new coalition with the SPOe or the OeVP.

Last year the FPOe’s Norbert Hofer, 46, who says Islam “has no place” in Austria, came close to being elected as Europe’s first far-right head of state since 1945.

The FPOe’s rise has mirrored that of other populist groupings in Europe on the back of concerns about immigration and terrorism and more established parties bleeding support.

But while the post of Austria’s president is largely ceremonial, the prospect of early elections gives the FPOe the chance of winning real power.