Alexander Van der Bellen (centre) speaks at the swearing-in ceremony in Parliament. Photo: Roland Schlager/APA/dpa
The EU has yet to find its geostrategic role, said the 79-year-old head of state on Thursday. “Otherwise others will decide about us,” he said in parliament. There the former leader of the Greens took his oath for a second six-year term in front of the members of the Federal Council and the National Council.
On the eve of the swearing-in, Van der Bellen drew a clear line to the right-wing FPÖ. In an interview with the broadcaster ORF, he was asked whether he would commission party leader Herbert Kickl to form a government after the FPÖ won the elections. Van der Bellen said he would not try to promote “an anti-European party, a party that does not condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine, through my measures”.
According to a survey by “Profil” magazine, 28 percent of citizens currently support the FPÖ. Behind them are the social democratic SPÖ with 24 percent and the conservative ÖVP led by Chancellor Karl Nehammer with 22 percent.
Van der Bellen won the October presidential election with 56.7 percent of the vote. Most of the other parliamentary parties supported the popular head of state and did without their own candidates. Only the FPÖ and smaller groups sent competitors into the race.
(SDA)