Last obstacles

When is the drop sucked? The “candy” timetable

Soundings will continue at the weekend.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Reuters/Lisa Leutner, APA/Helmut Fohringer)

Before coalition negotiations between the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS can begin, there are still a few obstacles to overcome. The exploratory teams want to meet again on Monday, before which negotiations will continue over the weekend.

Questions that have remained unresolved are to be clarified at various levels. A meeting of the party leaders is also not ruled out. The NEOS party executive must also give the green light for the coalition negotiations.

The invitation and date for the meeting of the pink extended party executive, which must approve the start of possible coalition negotiations according to the party statutes, have not yet been announced. However, this could take place at relatively short notice and the party executive committee could then meet online, the party said on Friday. No such resolutions are necessary for the ÖVP and SPÖ.

In any case, the exploratory teams of the parties are to meet again at the beginning of next week. A concrete date for the third round of exploratory talks in the turquoise-red-pink tripartite format has not yet been set; this is also to be determined at the weekend.

Will the next stage begin on Monday?
A meeting is expected to take place on Monday morning at Palais Epstein. Ideally, the start of coalition negotiations should be decided and the concrete timetable for the talks in the individual clusters should be determined. These could then start as early as Tuesday. The parties want to keep the composition of their negotiating teams for the government negotiations under wraps until then, but the "Krone" knows the first details.