Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer has announced his resignation after the collapse of months-long efforts to forge a centrist coalition that excluded the far-right.
The country faces the possibility of fresh elections after the failure to form a government without the anti-immigration, pro-Russian Freedom Party (FP?), which secured a historic first place finish in a nationwide vote in September.
Nehammer, who also announced he would stand down as leader of the moderate conservative People’s party (?VP), had been tasked by the country’s president with seeking to form a coalition after all the other parties in parliament ruled out working with the FP?’s hardline leader Herbert Kickl.