Austria: Unstable Power in the First Quarter of 21st Century

The articled explores the process of government formation in Austria in the first quarter of this century with the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democrats (SPÖ) as the main actors. The Greens and the Liberals from New Austria (NEOS) also played a certain role. The article provides an assessment of the coalition cooperation between the ÖVP and the FPÖ in 2000–2006, the SPÖ and the FPÖ in 2007–2016, and the FPÖ and the Greens in 2019–2024. The features of the current FPÖ-SPÖ-Liberals coalition (since March of 2025) are highlighted. The main factors that determined the mentioned temporarily cooperation and following collapse of their coalitions are demonstrated. The author argues that the instability of governments is related to the unwillingness of political elites to solve both intra-Austrian and pan-European problems. Among the latter: the scale of immigration influx, issues of energy security in the Old World, and financial and economic features of the early XXI century are particularly important.

Austria, political parties, government, electorate, elections, coalitions, nationalism, European Union