(Adnkronos) – The Austrian People’s Party (Oevp) and the Social Democratic Party (Spoe) have started talks for a possible government coalition while immediately warning of the differences that separate them.
Both conservatives and social democrats confirmed these contacts to public broadcaster Orf, although no further details on the content of the talks were released. Both Oevp leader Christian Stocker and his Spoe counterpart Andreas Babler are present.
These contacts come just days after talks between the far-right Freedom Party (Fpoe) and the Oevp collapsed due to disagreements, mainly over foreign policy and the distribution of ministerial portfolios in a hypothetical government.
Now, four and a half months after the parliamentary elections, which took place in September and gave victory to the far right, Austria is still without a government. The Fpoe won 57 seats, followed by the Conservatives (51) and the Social Democrats (41).
