Sudden resignation of Austrian vice-chancellor could open door for anti-immigration party

Mitterlehner, also leader of the People’s Party, Wednesday announced he would resign from all his political posts. “I resign as a party leader and as a member of the government,” Mitterlehner told reporters.

“It’s enough,” he said during a news conference on Wednesday, explaining that he had failed to stop in-fighting about the party’s future leadership. “It’s impossible to carry out government work while dealing with internal opposition,” Mitterlehner, 61, told a press conference in Vienna.

“I’m not a placeholder who fills in while someone else decides when the timing, structure and conditions are right,” he added, with reference to speculation about his replacement.

Many within Mitterlehner People’s Party have suggested an early election rather than replacing him as party leader in order to continue the fragile coalition with the Social Democrats.

The two parties have clashed regularly since 2013, and Mitterlehner’s resignation could spell the end of the difficult alliance. His party is losing support and is already lagging behind both the Freedom Party and the Social Democrats.

Both have dominated Austrian politics since 1945, but suffered a disastrous defeat in the 2016 presidential ballot when both their candidates were thrown out in the first round.

Mitterlehner has served as the economy minister since 2008 and became vice-chancellor and the party chairman in 2014.

People’s Party supporters fear that continuing to prop up the coalition would continue to weaken the party. Sebastian Kurz, the country’s young 30-year-old foreign minister, is widely tipped for the leadership.

The Mitterlehner departure raises the prospect of a general election to be held a year ahead of schedule, with the popular anti-immigration Freedom Party leading the opinion polls. Hofer told the Financial Times that his party would expose the problems arising from immigration, and exploit the current fractious coalition.

Hofer welcomed an early Austrian election. “The sooner the better,” Hofer, said. He shrugged off the defeat of the National Front’s Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential elections. “We’re the only stable [political] factor in Austria at the moment . . . Every country is different. We [the Freedom party] are growing steadily.”

But Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern on Thursday spoke out against early elections, during a school visit, Austria Press Agency reported. “My goal is to continue working with the People’s party,” the chancellor said.

The Freedom Party had come within an inch of securing the country’s presidency last year when for the second time, candidate Norbert Hofer stormed to victory in the first round of victory before being narrowly defeated in the second. Hofer won almost 47 per cent of the ballot in December’s presidential vote.

Europe’s migration crisis has increased support for the Freedom Party, with more than 130 000 people seeking asylum in the country over 2015-2016, leading the coalition government to co-ordinate with Hungary and other neighbouring countries to shut down migrant smuggling routes.

Meanwhile an Austrian court has jailed an asylum seeker from Syria for life after he murdered 20 wounded soldiers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army near the city of Homs, a court spokesman said. It is the first case in Austria to involve the killing of troops loyal to Assad.

Austria has already jailed several ISIS fighters. An interpreter had told the court the 27-year-old recounted the episode to him in Arabic, but the accused later argued that his statement had been mistranslated. The jury decided against the accused late on Wednesday. His lawyer said he would appeal against the ruling.