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Austria: Sebastian Kurz opens talks with Freedom Party | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Austria's conservative leader says he has invited the far right for talks to form a coalition government. | |
Sebastian Kurz said his People's Party and the Freedom Party (FPÖ) had similar positions on tax cuts and immigration controls. | |
The step paves the way for the FPÖ's return to government after more than a decade in opposition. | The step paves the way for the FPÖ's return to government after more than a decade in opposition. |
But Mr Kurz warned that his government could only be pro-European, in contrast to the Eurosceptic view of the FPÖ. | |
The People's Party won last week's parliamentary election but is well short of a majority. The only other option available to Mr Kurz to form a majority government is a coalition with the Social Democrats. | |
The last alliance between the Social Democrats and the conservatives fell apart this spring and there may be reluctance to renew it, correspondents say. | |
Mr Kurz, 31, told journalists: "The goal is clear, to form a stable government with a solid majority in parliament. If that's not possible, a minority government is definitely an alternative." | |
The Freedom Party was launched in 1956 by ex-Nazis with anti-immigrant and anti-EU positions. It has, however, softened its image in recent years and its candidate was narrowly defeated in last year's presidential election. | |
Immigration was the dominant issue in the run-up to last week's election, and Mr Kurz moved his party to the right in the wake of Europe's 2015 migrant crisis, a stance that proved popular with Austrian voters after a huge influx of undocumented migrants and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. | |
The Freedom Party had previously accused Mr Kurz of stealing its policies, and analysts say an alliance with them could prove controversial among Austria's EU counterparts. |