Austria Has a New Government: A Three-Party Coalition Formed for the First Time
The President of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen, has sworn in a new government, for the first time consisting of a coalition between the ÖVP, SPÖ, and NEOS. Important reforms lie ahead.
Photo: wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Austria's prolonged political crisis has come to an end: on Sunday, the liberal party NEOS voted to join a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and Conservatives (ÖVP), as reported by Euronews.
This decision paved the way for forming a new government, which will be sworn in on Monday.
The coalition agreement was announced last week but required approval from NEOS members. More than 94% of the two thousand party members who participated in the vote supported the deal, surpassing the required two-thirds threshold.
The new coalition was virtually the only way to avoid snap elections, which were expected to further strengthen the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ).
If NEOS had rejected the agreement, SPÖ and ÖVP would have been left with a minimal one-vote majority in parliament, making governance unstable.
On Monday, March 3, President Alexander Van der Bellen officially swore in the new government, composed of representatives from three parties: the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), and the liberal party NEOS, as reported by ORF.
This cabinet is the first in the country's history to include a coalition of three political forces.
Christian Stocker (ÖVP) has been appointed as Austria’s Chancellor, while Andreas Babler (SPÖ) will serve as his deputy and head a separate ministry.
The government consists of 12 ministers and 7 state secretaries. NEOS, securing three positions, will enter the federal government for the first time.
Immediately after the ceremony, the outgoing Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) transferred powers to the new head of government. On Friday, the cabinet’s program will be presented in parliament.
However, some ministers will need to be reappointed in the future: the current government structure is based on the existing ministry law, which still needs to be amended. Once the new law is passed, ministers with revised responsibilities will take the oath again.
The coalition formation process took 155 days since the elections. The final composition of the cabinet was approved by party members over the weekend.
The new government's course has faced criticism from the opposition, particularly the FPÖ, which argued that the promised changes may simply continue the old policies.
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