Three parties reached a deal on Thursday to form a new centrist Austrian government, two weeks after a far-right party that won an election in September failed to put together an administration.
The conservative Austrian People’s Party, the center-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos agreed on a program for a coalition after what Christian Stocker, who is expected to become chancellor, called “perhaps the most difficult negotiations on a government in the history of our country.”
Three weeks ago, the country’s politicians broke a post-World War II record of 129 days to form a new government that dated to 1962.
“The challenges are historic and far-reaching,” said Stocker, the new People’s Party leader, pointing to the ongoing war in Ukraine, a creaking Austrian budget and pressure from migration — long a top issue in Austrian politics.
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The coalition deal calls for strict new asylum rules in the European Union country of 9 million people. It foresees setting up “return centers” to house rejected …