Austria’s Moderate Parties Seal Coalition to Sideline Far Right
Social Democrats Leader Andreas Babler, left, People’s Party Leader Christian Stocker, center, and Neos Leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 22.
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Three moderate Austrian parties reached a deal to form a government, moving ahead with a coalition that will need to make deep budget cuts and pull the nation’s economy out of a second year of recession.
The agreement between the People’s Party, Social Democrats and the liberal NEOS took a record 151 days to reach. It excludes the nationalist Freedom Party, which won the most votes in September’s election but failed to build the parliamentary majority necessary to form a government.