Walter Rosenkranz was elected speaker of Austria’s parliament, the first member of the Freedom Party to gain the role.
Rosenkranz received 100 votes out of the 183 lawmakers.
The Freedom Party won September’s election with about 29% of the vote. Instead of tasking Rosenkranz with forming a new government, however, as is tradition, President Alexander Van der Bellen asked Chancellor Karl Nehammer, the incumbent, to form the government.
Nehammer has said his party, the Austrian People’s Party, will not work with the Freedom Party’s leader, Herbert Kickl, according to the Associated Press. He will instead attempt to form a three-party coalition with the Social Democrats and one of the smaller parties.
The BBC reported that the Freedom Party is “shunned” by the other parties.
“The parliamentary election on 29 September is not a race in which the party that crosses the finish line first automatically gets to form the government,” the outlet reported Van der Bellen as saying. “If a party wants to govern alone, it must clear the 50% hurdle. It is not sufficient to reach 10, 20 or 30%.”
Kickl wrote on social media that Nehammer’s move “may feel like a slap in the face for many of you. But I promise you: the last word has not yet been spoken.”
“We will see what coalition will stand at the end of this process,” he added. “If it goes according to the will of the voters, it can only be a government led by the Freedom Party.”
