Austria’s liberal NEOS party withdraws from coalition talks

ATHENS

Austria’s liberal NEOS party announced on Friday that it has withdrawn from coalition talks with social democratic SPO and far-right OVP parties, according to local media reports.

In a news conference, the party’s leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger justified the decision with a lack of will to reform among the negotiating partners, the public broadcaster ORF reported.

Talks saw no progress but rather a lot of regression, Meinl-Reisinger was quoted as saying.

“Taking into consideration unstable global affairs, our party entered the negotiations with the aim of bringing about profound changes, but there was no willingness to think beyond the next election day,” she said.

According to her, the issues of budget and competitiveness were the primary sources of disagreement.

Meinl-Reisinger underlined that he last government left a budget hole.

Lack of willingness to reform particularly concerned the areas of federalism, health care, pensions and the influence of political parties, she also added.

However, OVP and SPO announced that they would continue to extend a constructive hand and that they would support what had been agreed so far on the negotiating table, such as reform in the country’s education system.

However, the OVP secretary general Christian Stocker accused the SPO for NEOS' withdrawal, saying that the behavior of parts of the SPO had led to the current situation.