The announced partial withdrawal by SPÖ Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler has set minds racing within the governing People’s Party (ÖVP) as well. On Monday morning, the party’s regional leaders met to discuss how to handle the new situation, raising the question of whether the three-party coalition at federal level is now wobbling. One former ÖVP member of parliament has already openly floated the idea of new elections, reported by Kronen Zeitung.
Shortly after Babler’s statement on Sunday evening, Federal Chancellor Christian Stocker stressed that internal party discussions must not disrupt the government’s work. Even so, the ÖVP leader insisted that, despite Babler’s decision to step back in stages, the coalition’s programme must continue to be implemented “consistently”.
Markus Wallner (ÖVP), governor of Vorarlberg and chairman of the conference of state premiers, said even before the SPÖ crisis meeting that the red party’s leadership debate would not help. “The federal government’s ability to act is being put to the test,” he told ORF. Wallner did not rule out fresh elections. “You can never completely exclude that, but I hope not,” he said.
Heidi Glück, former spokesperson for former ÖVP Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, voiced sharp criticism of the SPÖ. “This solution from the SPÖ party meeting is impossible to explain,” she said on X.
Martin Engelberg, once brought into politics by Sebastian Kurz and who left parliament again in October 2024, advised the ÖVP to pursue a “personnel reset” and called for new elections. “Better an end with terror than terror without end,” the 66-year-old said, urging Chancellor Stocker to resign. As Stocker’s successor, he named former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. “He is the only one with the potential to bring the ÖVP back to first place.”
The FPÖ, already notoriously dissatisfied with the coalition’s work, also used the Reds’ crisis to demand new elections. Secretary General Michael Schnedlitz said the SPÖ is currently more a “red self-help group than a political party” and called on Stocker to end the “chaos coalition”.
For now, the ÖVP government team is not switching to crisis mode. An evening appointment for Stocker together with Secretary of State Alexander Pröll at the “AI Summit for Politics” on Monday was not cancelled.
