VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said on Tuesday he was tasking Chancellor Karl Nehammer, head of the conservative People’s Party (OVP), with forming a ruling coalition even though the far-right Freedom Party won last month’s general election.
Van der Bellen said in a speech that he was asking Nehammer, whose party came second, to hold coalition talks with the third-placed Social Democrats, since no party was willing to govern with Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Hugh Lawson)