Austria’s leading political parties are struggling to come to an agreement on forming a coalition government after last year’s elections, media reported this week.
Talks between far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) and Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) began earlier this year, after negotiations between the latter and several other parties to exclude FPÖ from government fell apart. FPÖ has been in a coalition government with ÖVP previously, but as the junior partner. With the party taking the largest share of votes in the September elections, however, FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl has pushed for his party to be the senior partner.
Both parties issued statements denying that talks had collapsed.
Thousands protested in Vienna this week, urging the ÖVP to abandon talks with FPÖ. Should the two parties fail to come to terms, Austria will be forced into fresh parliamentary elections.
In an interview this week, Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner said that some defense initiatives could be impacted in the event of a coalition agreement between ÖVP and FPÖ, highlighting the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) in particular. ESSI, launched in 2022, has been a target of the Austrian far-right over criticism that the German-led multilateral procurement project violates Austrian neutrality.
ESSI aims to coordinate European purchases of air-defense equipment, including IRIS-T, Patriot, and Arrow surface-to-air missile systems. Austria signed its intent to join the program in 2023, adding its name to a list of nearly two dozen European countries involved in the initiative.
The Austrian military has not yet inked any deals through ESSI, but has taken steps to address very short-range air-defense with last year’s purchase of Rheinmetall’s Skyranger 30 turret, to be installed on dozens of new Pandur EVO 6×6 armored vehicles.
Military markets analyst, covering Eurasia, Middle East, and Africa.
