Austria has a new government – and a chancellor who, at the beginning of the election year, was hardly expected to be in the lead. Christian Stocker, a long-time official of the People’s Party (ÖVP) and until recently a man of the second row, will lead the country in the future. He stands at the head of an unusual alliance of the conservative ÖVP, the social democratic SPÖ and the liberal Neos. The three-party coalition is the result of protracted negotiations that have lasted more than five months and are unprecedented in the history of the Second Republic.
Stocker, born in 1960, comes from Wiener Neustadt, a city of around 50,000 inhabitants in Lower Austria. There, he had a long-standing law firm before entering local politics in 2000. He was a local party chairman and deputy mayor before entering the National Council in 2019. In federal politics, he played a long time no prominent role. Only in 2022 did he take over the post of general secretary of the ÖVP – a function that suddenly put him in the spotlight.
His rise to party leader and chancellor was ultimately a consequence of the failure of others: After the coalition talks with the FPÖ broke down and the then Chancellor Karl Nehammer stepped down, Stocker took over the party leadership in an emergency meeting in early January, interim at first. A few days later, it was clear: Stocker will stay – because of the lack of alternatives and because the party needed someone to close the ranks. The fact that he is now chancellor is an expression of this necessity.
Christian Stocker does not fit the image of a modern political star, as, for example, Sebastian Kurz once did. He is neither a brilliant orator nor a charismatic tribune of the people. In public, he gives himself a matter-of-fact, almost austere appearance. Personal vanity is foreign to him, according to acquaintances. His political handwriting: quiet, disciplined, sometimes unyielding – but reliable. Within the ÖVP, he is known for being a loyal administrator who implements party decisions without great personal accents.
Especially memorable is a scene from the parliament, where Stocker, then still the general secretary, confronted the FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl directly. With the clear message that the Freedom Party would not find any partners in this house, he made the insurmountable distance between ÖVP and FPÖ clear. This deep mistrust, which Stocker embodied like hardly anyone else, significantly contributed to the fact that the coalition talks with the Freedom Party ultimately failed in December.
The now negotiated three-party coalition with the SPÖ and Neos is considered historic. Never before has Austria been governed by a three-party alliance. The 210-page government program bears the title “Now do the right thing. For Austria” – a title that emphasizes the need for a pragmatic, ideology-free cooperation. The content of the agreement includes economic stimuli to strengthen the location, measures against inflation and a more restrictive migration policy – the latter mainly at the insistence of the ÖVP.
Whether this coalition will hold, will be shown. The range of the participating parties is enormous – from the liberal economic handwriting of the Neos to the social agenda of the SPÖ to the migration-critical positions of the ÖVP. Especially the cooperation between Christian Stocker and the SPÖ leader Andreas Babler will be challenging. Babler, a left-wing rebel from the Traiskirchen community, embodies a completely different political style: loud, polarizing and programmatically clear on the left side.
What drives Christian Stocker? Those who talk to him do not get the impression of a man with a great political vision. Stocker is not an ideological pioneer, but a craftsman of power who sees his task in keeping the party together and the shop running. The fact that he is now the central figure in Austrian politics is more a matter of fate than a goal.
Privately, the new chancellor appears down-to-earth: He plays the tenor saxophone, goes fishing with passion and spends a lot of time with his family. Politics was for him long a secondary occupation – first in the shadow of others, now suddenly in the bright spotlight.
Before the government can even start working, it still faces a last hurdle: The members of the Neos must ratify the alliance with a two-thirds majority. Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger recently expressed optimism that this will be the case. Even if the formal hurdle is cleared – the actual governing will be a trial by fire.
Christian Stocker will now have to prove whether a man from the provinces, who never aspired to the big stage, has the stuff to lead Austria in difficult times. The pragmatist in the chancellery stands for stability – whether this will be enough to bridge the political differences of the coalition, remains open.