The leadership of Austria’s ruling conservatives held a crisis meeting on Sunday to pick a successor to Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who announced his resignation on Saturday as attempts to form a coalition government without the far right fell apart. More than two hours after the meeting began, several Austrian media reported that People’s Party (OVP) Secretary-General Christian Stocker, 64, would take over as party leader in an interim capacity. The OVP and FPO overlap on various issues, particularly taking a tough line on immigration, to the point that the FPO has accused the OVP of stealing its ideas. The two governed together from late 2017 until 2019, when a video-sting scandal involving the then-leader of the FPO prompted their coalition’s collapse. At the state level, they govern together in five of nine states, including in OVP moderate Wallner’s Vorarlberg.

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Persons: Austria’s, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Christian Stocker, Alexander Van der, Van, Herbert Kickl, ” Markus Wallner, “, ” Wallner, Nehammer, Viktor Orban’s, Sebastian Kurz, Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer, Kickl Organizations: People’s Party, Party, Hungarian, OVP, Social Democrats, of Commerce Locations: Russia, Vorarlberg, Austrian, Austria