Austria's ailing Social Democrats sought Friday to halt the rise of the far-right and inject new life into a moribund governing coalition by naming railways boss Christian Kern as chancellor.
Four days after predecessor Werner Faymann threw in the towel after a string of poor election results, interim SPOe party boss Michael Haeupl said that Kern, 50, would be formally appointed on Tuesday.
A decision was taken "unanimously" in a "harmonious" party meeting, Haeupl said. Kern will be sworn in by the president on Tuesday or Wednesday, when he will make his maiden speech in parliament.
Snappy dresser Kern faces a major challenge uniting a fractious SPOe and convincing Austrians unhappy about the arrival of migrants and rising unemployment to vote for them at the next scheduled elections in 2018.
"The task before him in Herculean," political analyst Thomas Hofer told AFP.
Mirroring similar trends elsewhere in Europe, the SPOe and its coalition partner, the centre-right People's Party (OeVP), have been in decline for years, losing voters to the fringe groups.
In particular, the populist Freedom Party (FPOe) is enjoying soaring support, leading opinion polls with more than 30 percent of the vote compared with the low 20s for the long-powerful SPOe and OeVP.
If accurate, this means the two parties will fall short of being able in 2018 to re-form their "grand coalition". In the last election three years ago, they only just scratched together a majority.
Faymann, 56, had taken a harder line on migrants in recent months, but this failed to boost his ratings and alienated many Social Democrats, particularly those in the left wing of the party.
The final nail in his political coffin was the first round of the presidential election on April 24 when the FPOe's Norbert Hofer scored 35 percent and the main parties' candidates won a dismal 11 percent each.
This debacle, sending shock waves through the long-cosy political establishment, meant that for the first time since 1945, Austria will not have a head of state from either of these two parties.
Hofer, 45, portrayed as a friendly face of the FPOe, is the bookmakers' favourite to win the runoff on May 22 against Alexander van der Bellen, 72, the professorial former head of the Greens.
The job of president is largely ceremonial, but not entirely. In theory the head of state can fire the government and dissolve parliament. Hofer has said he would be a "more active" president.
- 'Pinstripes socialist' -
Kern, dubbed a "pinstripes socialist" by German broadcaster ARD, grew up in a working class district of Vienna as the son of an electrician and a secretary.
He joined the SPOe when he was young, climbing up the ranks before moving to an energy firm in 1997 and to national railways company OeBB in 2010.
There, the father-of-four is widely credited with a turnaround and successfully managing the transport of immense numbers of migrants transiting through Austria in 2015.
But whether Kern can heal the SPOe remains to be seen. His positions on key policy areas are vague, although he is thought to lean more to the right on economic issues.
His biggest headache will be to decide whether to ditch the SPOe's 30-year-old taboo on cooperating with the FPOe, dating back to when the late, controversial Joerg Haider became leader of the right-wing party.
Kern also needs to revitalise the SPOe's deadlocked coalition with the OeVP and agree structural reforms to get Austria's economy, faltering of late, moving again.
OeVP head Reinhold Mitterlehner praised Kern's "management qualities" in an interview published Friday, but said this was "the much-quoted last chance" for the coalition.
FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache said that Kern's performance at the railways company during the migrant crisis "showed that he actively supported Faymann's people-smuggling policy".
"If Kern really wants to end the paralysis and the glaring deficits that this country is suffering from, then he should clear the way for new elections," Strache said.
Austria’s ailing Social Democrats sought Friday to halt the rise of the far-right and inject new life into a moribund governing coalition by naming railways boss Christian Kern as chancellor.
Four days after predecessor Werner Faymann threw in the towel after a string of poor election results, interim SPOe party boss Michael Haeupl said that Kern, 50, would be formally appointed on Tuesday.
A decision was taken “unanimously” in a “harmonious” party meeting, Haeupl said. Kern will be sworn in by the president on Tuesday or Wednesday, when he will make his maiden speech in parliament.
Snappy dresser Kern faces a major challenge uniting a fractious SPOe and convincing Austrians unhappy about the arrival of migrants and rising unemployment to vote for them at the next scheduled elections in 2018.
“The task before him in Herculean,” political analyst Thomas Hofer told AFP.
Mirroring similar trends elsewhere in Europe, the SPOe and its coalition partner, the centre-right People’s Party (OeVP), have been in decline for years, losing voters to the fringe groups.
In particular, the populist Freedom Party (FPOe) is enjoying soaring support, leading opinion polls with more than 30 percent of the vote compared with the low 20s for the long-powerful SPOe and OeVP.
If accurate, this means the two parties will fall short of being able in 2018 to re-form their “grand coalition”. In the last election three years ago, they only just scratched together a majority.
Faymann, 56, had taken a harder line on migrants in recent months, but this failed to boost his ratings and alienated many Social Democrats, particularly those in the left wing of the party.
The final nail in his political coffin was the first round of the presidential election on April 24 when the FPOe’s Norbert Hofer scored 35 percent and the main parties’ candidates won a dismal 11 percent each.
This debacle, sending shock waves through the long-cosy political establishment, meant that for the first time since 1945, Austria will not have a head of state from either of these two parties.
Hofer, 45, portrayed as a friendly face of the FPOe, is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the runoff on May 22 against Alexander van der Bellen, 72, the professorial former head of the Greens.
The job of president is largely ceremonial, but not entirely. In theory the head of state can fire the government and dissolve parliament. Hofer has said he would be a “more active” president.
– ‘Pinstripes socialist’ –
Kern, dubbed a “pinstripes socialist” by German broadcaster ARD, grew up in a working class district of Vienna as the son of an electrician and a secretary.
He joined the SPOe when he was young, climbing up the ranks before moving to an energy firm in 1997 and to national railways company OeBB in 2010.
There, the father-of-four is widely credited with a turnaround and successfully managing the transport of immense numbers of migrants transiting through Austria in 2015.
But whether Kern can heal the SPOe remains to be seen. His positions on key policy areas are vague, although he is thought to lean more to the right on economic issues.
His biggest headache will be to decide whether to ditch the SPOe’s 30-year-old taboo on cooperating with the FPOe, dating back to when the late, controversial Joerg Haider became leader of the right-wing party.
Kern also needs to revitalise the SPOe’s deadlocked coalition with the OeVP and agree structural reforms to get Austria’s economy, faltering of late, moving again.
OeVP head Reinhold Mitterlehner praised Kern’s “management qualities” in an interview published Friday, but said this was “the much-quoted last chance” for the coalition.
FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache said that Kern’s performance at the railways company during the migrant crisis “showed that he actively supported Faymann’s people-smuggling policy”.
“If Kern really wants to end the paralysis and the glaring deficits that this country is suffering from, then he should clear the way for new elections,” Strache said.
