Coalition talks

The Ministry of the Interior remains the bone of contention

Herbert Kickl longs for his party to return to the Ministry of the Interior. The ÖVP is not happy about this. That is explosive.(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

Negotiations in the federal government on a blue-black coalition continue on Monday. One thing is certain: The tug-of-war over a key security ministry is in the spotlight. And will probably also decide between failure and success.

Weekend rest. Announced on Friday. The negotiations are as tough as chewing gum in curly hair. How do you solve this problem? On Monday, the FPÖ and ÖVP party ranks want to continue negotiations.

According to "Krone" information, at the request of the People's Party led by Christian Stocker. They want to reorganize themselves, after it was "point-to-button" whether the right-wing conservative coalition would burst before it was formed. In addition to various differences of opinion on Europe, Russia and church tax deductions, the main issue is the allocation of ministries - specifically the Ministry of the Interior.

Election winner Herbert Kickl is known to have offered the presumed coalition partner and chancellor's party a catalog - the black love children Finance and Interior Ministry would have to go to the FPÖ. This, of course, caused turbulence and brought the negotiations to the brink of exploding. The ÖVP offered the Blue Party the Ministry of Finance - but they wanted the entire package.

ÖVP leader Christian Stocker continues to negotiate.(Bild: Martin A. Jöchl)

Splitting the ministry a "newspaper hoax"
 According to information from "Krone", the fact that the Ministry of the Interior could possibly be split (asylum and migration to Blue, secret service and police to Black) is likely to be a lame newspaper hoax. This is also confirmed by political insider and opinion researcher Christoph Haselmayer (IFDD): "These reports are nonsense. It would be like dividing the Ministry of Agriculture into agriculture and livestock farming."

Would the president appoint a blue interior minister?
According to research, the issue would also become explosive at the very highest level. Would Federal President Alexander van der Bellen even appoint an interior minister from the FPÖ? After all, he did not appoint Kickl to Ibiza, but rather removed him. And expressed concerns as to whether a Eurosceptic and Russia-friendly candidate should also oversee the intelligence services. That has not changed. However, there is currently no definite no. Ultimately, it also depends on the person, they say. The coming week should be exciting.

Incidentally, despite the break in negotiations, Kickl once again posted on Facebook on Saturday. He did so on an international topic with "good news" about the "Patriots' Congress" in Madrid, where support for Donald Trump's course was also conveyed for Europe. The right-wing Islamic Likud, chaired by Trump friend Benjamin Netanyahu, is now an observer in the right-wing EU parliamentary group to which the FPÖ belongs. Kickl: "Another sign that the fairytale of international isolation is collapsing." Addition: "Our movement is unstoppable".