Austria's chancellor asked to form new government after parties refuse to work with far-right leader

VIENNA — Austria's president on Tuesday tasked incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer with forming a new government after all other parties refused to work with the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, which last month won a national election for the first time.

The Freedom Party finished first in the Sept. 29 election with 28.8% of the vote, ahead of Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party, which took 26.3%. The center-left Social Democrats were third with 21.1%. The outgoing governing coalition of Nehammer’s party and the environmentalist Greens lost its majority.

Whoever leads the next government will need to build a coalition to have a parliamentary majority. But Nehammer's party has said it wouldn't work with the Freedom Party under its leader, Herbert Kickl. The other three parties in the new parliament said they wouldn't work with the Freedom Party at all. And Kickl said the Freedom Party would only go into government with him as chancellor.

President Alexander Van der Bellen on Oct. 9 asked the leaders of the three biggest parties to hold talks on possible cooperation, dispensing with a tradition of giving the election winner the task of trying to form a new government.

The party leaders reported back to him on Monday, and Van der Bellen said all had stuck to their positions. As a result, he said he was asking Nehammer to form a government and talk to the Social Democrats.

There was no immediate public response from the chancellor or the far-right party.