Elections have been brought forward to early September in Austria, following a massive rift between the two coalition partners ÖVP and FPÖ. This was triggered by a compromising video that emerged from 2017, in which Heinz-Christian Strache, Vice-Chancellor and head of the FPÖ, and Johann Gudenus, FPÖ faction leader, offered an apparent niece of a Russian oligarch government contracts in return for election aid. Former Minister of the Interior, Herbert Kickl, who was General Secretary at the time, is also under pressure. The scandal could also have repercussions at federal state level and lead to a breakup of the SPÖ/FPÖ coalition in Burgenland, among other things. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) wants to continue leading the government until September; based on current information, in collaboration with the current FPÖ ministers. A grand coalition between the ÖVP and its SPÖ junior partner appears to be emerging – once again. According to the…

After days of negotiations, the SPÖ and the ÖVP, the two parties in coalition, managed to agree on a joint agenda for the remaining one and a half years of the current legislative period. In this way, the coalition partners managed to overcome the political rift which had developed. Had the negotiations failed, the risk of the Grand Coalition breaking down prematurely would have increased greatly. The result would presumably have been new elections, an outcome that neither of the two formerly large popular parties would have wanted to see. In this case, the right-wing populist FPÖ would have had a good chance of emerging as the strongest party in parliament, thereby gaining the right to lead any future government. Federal Chancellor and SPÖ Chairman Kern and ÖVP Chairman Mitterlehner have now presented a joint (economic) programme that reflects the interests of both the Social Democrats and the Conservatives. The…