Before the FPÖ’s first entry into the Chancellor’s office in Austria, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil accused the ÖVP of lacking distance from its sister party.
Conservatives would have buckled within 24 hours, Klingbeil told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”. “They have made a 180-degree turn from their clear statement that they will not form a coalition with the FPÖ and will not elect Herbert Kickl as Chancellor, to supporting the right-wing party.” The ÖVP is rapidly breaking its promise and “throwing itself at the neck of the right-extremists”.
Klingbeil lamented: “So far, there is no distance taken by the Union.” He asked: “Where is the clarity of Friedrich Merz when it comes to the cooperation of his partners with a right-extremist and Putin friend like Kickl?” One could have formed a coalition of the center in Vienna, the SPD politician said. “They would have had a majority of votes.” The willingness of Austrian Social Democrats from the sister party SPÖ was present.