عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Speculation Grows That Austrian Far Right Leader Herbert Kickl Will Be Asked to Form Govt

A horse-drawn cart passes the Federal Chancellery during the Austrian People's Party (OeVP) meeting, in Vienna, Austria, 05 January 2025. (EPA)
A horse-drawn cart passes the Federal Chancellery during the Austrian People's Party (OeVP) meeting, in Vienna, Austria, 05 January 2025. (EPA)
TT
TT

Speculation Grows That Austrian Far Right Leader Herbert Kickl Will Be Asked to Form Govt

A horse-drawn cart passes the Federal Chancellery during the Austrian People's Party (OeVP) meeting, in Vienna, Austria, 05 January 2025. (EPA)
A horse-drawn cart passes the Federal Chancellery during the Austrian People's Party (OeVP) meeting, in Vienna, Austria, 05 January 2025. (EPA)

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Sunday announced that he would meet with far-right politician Herbert Kickl as speculation grows that he will ask the Freedom Party leader to form a government.

Van der Bellen made the announcement after meeting with Chancellor Karl Nehammer and others at his presidential palace. Nehammer has announced his intention to resign after coalition talks between his conservative Austrian People's Party and the center-left Social Democrats collapsed over the budget.

Nehammer has ruled out working with Kickl, but others within his party are less adamant. Earlier Sunday, the People's Party nominated its general secretary, Christian Stocker, as interim leader, but the president said Nehammer would remain chancellor for now.

Van der Bellen said that he had spent several hours talking to key officials, after which he got the impression that “the voices within the People's Party who exclude working with the Freedom Party under its leader Herbert Kickl have become quieter.”

The president said that this development has “potentially opened a new path," which has prompted him to invite Kickl for a meeting on Monday morning.

Kickl's Freedom Party topped the polls in the autumn's national election with 29.2% of the vote, but Van der Bellen tasked Nehammer with putting together a new government because no other party was willing to work with Kickl.

That decision drew heavy criticism from the Freedom Party and its supporters, with Kickl saying that it was “not right and not logical” that he did not get a mandate to form a government.

Stocker addressed reporters on Sunday afternoon and confirmed that he had been appointed “unanimously” by his party to serve as interim leader. “I am very honored and happy,” he said.

He also welcomed the decision by the president to meet with Kickl and said that he now expects that the leader of the party that emerged as the clear winner from the last election would be tasked with forming a government.

“If we are invited to negotiations to form a government, we will accept this invitation,” Stocker added.

In the past, Stocker has criticized Kickl, calling him a “security risk” for the country.

In its election program titled “Fortress Austria,” the Freedom Party calls for “remigration of uninvited foreigners,” for achieving a more “homogeneous” nation by tightly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum via an emergency law.

The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to bow out of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defense project launched by Germany. The Freedom Party has also signed a friendship agreement in 2016 with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party that it now claims has expired.

Kickl has criticized “elites” in Brussels and called for some powers to be brought back from the European Union to Austria.

Austria was thrown into political turmoil on Friday after the liberal party Neos pulled out of coalition talks with the People's Party and the Social Democrats.  

On Saturday the two remaining parties, who have only a one-seat majority in Parliament, made another attempt to form a government — but that also ended in failure after a few hours, with negotiators saying they were unable to agree on how to repair the budget deficit.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

NKorea Says it Tested Hypersonic Intermediate Range missile Aimed at Remote Pacific Targets

A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with a hypersonic warhead as payload, at an undisclosed location in North Korea, 06 January 2025 (issued 07 January 2025). EPA/KCNA EDITORIAL USE ONLY
A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with a hypersonic warhead as payload, at an undisclosed location in North Korea, 06 January 2025 (issued 07 January 2025). EPA/KCNA EDITORIAL USE ONLY
TT
TT

NKorea Says it Tested Hypersonic Intermediate Range missile Aimed at Remote Pacific Targets

A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with a hypersonic warhead as payload, at an undisclosed location in North Korea, 06 January 2025 (issued 07 January 2025). EPA/KCNA EDITORIAL USE ONLY
A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with a hypersonic warhead as payload, at an undisclosed location in North Korea, 06 January 2025 (issued 07 January 2025). EPA/KCNA EDITORIAL USE ONLY

North Korea said Tuesday its latest weapons test was a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile designed to strike remote targets in the Pacific as leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further expand his collection of nuclear-capable weapons to counter rival nations.

The North Korean state media report came a day after South Korea’s military said it detected North Korea launching a missile that flew 1,100 kilometers (685 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, The Associated Press reported. The launch, conducted weeks before Donald Trump returns as US president, came off a torrid year in weapons testing.

North Korea demonstrated multiple weapons systems last year that can target its neighbors and the United States, including solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, and there are concerns that its military capabilities could advance further through technology transfers from Russia, as the two countries align over the war in Ukraine.

North Korea in recent years has flight tested various intermediate-range missiles, which if perfected, could reach the US Pacific military hub of Guam. In recent months, North has been testing combining these missiles with purported hypersonic warheads to improve their survivability.

North Korea since 2021 has been testing various hypersonic weapons designed to fly at more than five times the speed of sound. The speed and maneuverability of such weapons aim to withstand regional missile defense systems. However, it’s unclear whether these missiles are consistently flying at the speeds the North claims.

The North’s state media said Kim supervised Monday’s launch, and that the weapon traveled 1,500 kilometers (932 miles), during which it reached two different peaks of 99.8 kilometers (62 miles) and 42.5 kilometers (26.4 miles) and achieved a speed amounting to 12 times the speed of sound, before accurately striking a sea target.

Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the South Korean military believes North Korea was exaggerating capabilities of the system, saying the missile covered less distance and that there was no second peak.
Lee said the test was likely a followup to another hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile test last April and said it would be difficult to use such systems in a relatively small territory like the Korean Peninsula. He said the South Korean and US militaries were continuing to analyze the missile.
Kim described the missile as a crucial achievement in his goals to bolster the North’s nuclear deterrence by building an arsenal “no one can respond to,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
“The hypersonic missile system will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region that can affect the security of our state,” the agency quoted Kim as saying.
Kim reiterated that his nuclear push was aimed at countering “different security threats the hostile forces posed to our state,” but KCNA didn’t mention any direct criticism toward Washington, Seoul or Tokyo.
The launch took place while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Seoul for talks with South Korean allies over the North Korean nuclear threat and other issues.
In a news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul on Monday, Blinken condemned North Korea’s launch, which violated UN Security Council resolutions against the North's weapons programs. He also reiterated concerns about the growing alignment between North Korea and Russia in Moscow’s war on Ukraine. He described the military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow as a “two-way street,” saying Russia has been providing military equipment and training to the North and “intends to share space and satellite technology.”

According to US, Ukrainian and South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops and conventional weapons systems to support Moscow’s war campaign. There are concerns that Russia could transfer to North Korea advanced weapons technology in return, which could potentially enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear-armed military.

At a year-end political conference, Kim Jong Un vowed to implement the “toughest” anti-US policy and criticized the Biden administration’s efforts to strengthen security cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo, which he described as a “nuclear military bloc for aggression.”
North Korean state media did not specify Kim’s policy plans or mention any specific comments about Trump. During his first term as president, Trump met Kim three times for talks on the North’s nuclear program.
Even if Trump returns to the White House, a quick resumption of diplomacy with North Korea could be unlikely. Kim’s strengthened position — built on his expanded nuclear arsenal, deepening alliance with Russia and the weakening enforcement of US international sanctions — presents new challenges to resolving the nuclear standoff, experts say.