Austria Installs New Cabinet in Shadow of Recession, Far Right
- Social Democrats appoint Markus Marterbauer finance minister
- NEOS Beate Meinl-Reisinger becomes Austrian foreign minister
Alexander Van der Bellen speaks to incoming Federal Chancellor Christian Stocker and others during the swearing-in ceremony.
Photographer: Roland Schlarger/AFP/Getty Images
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More than five months after elections, Austria appointed a conservative-led government entrusted with pulling the economy out of recession while cutting the budget deficit and reversing a surge in right-wing populism.
People’s Party Chancellor Christian Stocker will lead a coalition that includes the Social Democrats and liberal NEOS as junior partners. Austria’s long history of consensual rule was underscored last month, when the Freedom Party failed to form a government because it couldn’t strike a compromise on its radical policy agenda.