Austria May Try New Path With Conservative-Green Government Pact

(Bloomberg) -- Austrian conservative leader Sebastian Kurz will start talks to form a government with the environmentalist Greens, a pact that could break new ground in Europe.

Kurz told journalists he had unanimous backing of the leadership of his People’s Party’s to start negotiations with the Greens, whose Chairman Werner Kogler also won support by the group’s extended board on Sunday. Anything less than two months of talks would be “very ambitious,” Kurz said.

Kurz and Kogler’s main job in the coming weeks will be to bridge the yawning gap between their groups’ policy positions on everything from the climate crisis to the economy and taxes to migration. Kurz said that it’s “very clear” what the parties stand for with the electorate and that “some creativity” would be needed to deal with the differences.

“The Greens have strong positions on the environment and the climate, which aren’t easy for us to swallow, but for which they’ve been elected,” Kurz said. “On the other hand, we have very clear positions about migration, security, economy and taxes, and we’ve been elected for those.”

“There will have to be a new form of governing,” he said.

A coalition with the Greens would be an about-face for 33-year-old Kurz, who moved his party to the right and governed with the nationalist Freedom Party for 17 months, before that pact collapsed after a scandal over a sting video shot on the Spanish resort island Ibiza. After the 2002 election, months of talks between the conservatives and Greens -- led by Alexander Van der Bellen, now Austria’s president -- failed to result in a government.

While Kurz won the elections with 37.5% of the vote, he needs at least one partner to gain a majority in parliament. The Freedom Party pulled out of exploratory talks early, saying their election defeat didn’t give them a mandate to lead the country.

To contact the reporter on this story: Boris Groendahl in Vienna at bgroendahl@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss, Chris Reiter

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