Three mainstream political parties in Austria said on Thursday that they had reached an agreement to form a new government that excludes the far right, ending five months of roller coaster negotiations after an election last fall.
The coalition is set to announce ministerial posts on Friday, but the new chancellor is likely to be Christian Stocker, the head of the People’s Party, the biggest coalition partner.
The new government is set to include left- and right-of-center parties but not the far-right Freedom Party, which finished first in the September vote.
The Freedom Party, which was founded by former Nazi soldiers in the 1950s and had campaigned on promises to deport immigrants and ban political forms of Islam, had been bidding to become the latest in a wave of hard-right parties to take power in Europe.
The mainstream parties had initially refused to work with the Freedom Party and tried to form a government without it, but those talks failed last month. The most conservative of those parties, the People’s Party, then entered negotiations with the Freedom Party over forming a government that would have made Herbert Kickl, the outspoken leader of the far-right party, the chancellor.
But those talks broke down as well, setting the stage for a final effort by the mainstream parties.
On Thursday, the People’s Party, the Austrian Social Democrats and the liberal NEOS party announced the deal to form a coalition and presented a 200-page plan for governing the country for the next four years.
While the main focus of the plan is on the budget and the economy, it also touches on migration reform and proposes a head-scarf ban for young girls, in a nod to the Freedom Party.
The far right has gained popularity since last fall and is now polling at nearly 35 percent. It would most likely end up the big winner if this coalition fails.
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