End of the "Zuckerl"

Germany now warns against “exclusionitis”

Following the failure of the talks, FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl was given a government mandate.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA)

The top candidate for the German Greens, Robert Habeck, has looked with concern at the government mandate for the FPÖ in Austria. The Zuckerl coalition should not have failed, he concluded.

In the Alpine republic, the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Liberals had failed to form a government, Habeck explained at the start of his election campaign tour in Lübeck on Monday evening. "That should not have happened, and it should not happen again in Germany."

Habeck also said: "Anyone who is now, at this time, talking about 'exclusionitis' is either preparing to break their own word or is making this country increasingly difficult to govern." He did not explain who his accusation was directed at.

Just hours earlier, Bavarian Minister President and CSU leader Markus Söder had once again clearly ruled out an alliance between the CDU/CSU and the Greens at the closed meeting of CSU members of parliament in the Bavarian monastery of Seeon.