The coalition negotiations have dragged on for four months after Austrians voted in September — the longest in the country's history.
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00:00The leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, has called for fresh elections after coalition talks with his party and the centre-right OVP collapsed on Wednesday.
00:11Kickl was tasked with forming a coalition government by President Alexander Van der Bellen after Austria's other parties banded together in order to keep Kickl out of power.
00:21I thanked the Federal President for the fact that we had a very trustworthy basis of conversation in the last few weeks, even though we have very different ideological approaches in many areas.
00:36And in this conversation, I also expressed my opinion to the Federal President that it would be good and that it was about time, if perhaps the head of state would now promote and support the variant of a quick new election.
01:01I would say that this was a bit of a tragedy that took place.
01:05It still annoys me, because the others took three months and did nothing. And he says that the government will be in place in a week, and that's not true either. Time for a new election.
01:14Kickl came first in elections held in September with 28% of the vote. However, with the FPO unable to form a government, Austria now enters an unclear political situation.