Austria's new government takes office after a record 5-month wait

VIENNA (AP) — Austria’s new government took office on Monday, with Christian Stocker taking over as chancellor at the head of a previously untried three-party coalition after a record five-month wait for a new administration.

The new government will have to deal with rising unemployment, a recession and a creaking budget. Its coalition agreement, reached on Thursday after the longest negotiations in post-World War II Austria, foresees strict new asylum rules in the European Union country of 9 million people.

“I stand in front of you today with great respect for the tasks that await, and I am very well aware of the great responsibility that comes with these tasks,” Stocker said at a handover ceremony. “I aspire to be a chancellor for everyone.”

The end of a long road

This is the country’s first three-party government, bringing together Stocker’s conservative Austrian People’s Party, the center-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos. The alliance in the political center came together only at the second attempt, after the far-right, anti-immigration and euroskeptic Freedom Party emerged as the strongest political force in a parliamentary election on Sept. 29.

A first attempt collapsed in early January, prompting the resignation of then-Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who had said that his party wouldn’t work under Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl.

Stocker took over from Nehammer as leader of the People’s Party and went into negotiations with Kickl on a possible coalition, but those collapsed on Feb. 12 amid mutual finger-pointing.

The three parties in the center then renewed their effort to find common ground, heading off the possibility of an early election. On Sunday, the coalition deal received strong backing from members of Neos, which is entering a federal government for the first time — the final step before the government could take office.

“One could say ‘good things come to those who wait’ — that, in any case, is my hope in view of the many days it took to form this government,” President Alexander Van der Bellen said as he swore in the new government.

“This process certainly took a long time; whether it will turn out well now isn't yet decided, but we are positive and optimistic," he added. "That is down to us all.”

A new team with some familiar faces

Stocker, 64, becomes chancellor although he wasn’t running for the job when Austrians voted in September and has not previously served in a national government. Social Democratic leader Andreas Babler became the new vice chancellor.

Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger took over as foreign minister from Alexander Schallenberg, who also served as interim chancellor for the past two months after Nehammer’s resignation.

Schallenberg says he is leaving politics, at least for now. He told Stocker that it would have been hard to imagine such a friendly handover when he took over temporarily in January, at a time when a Kickl-led government with a more skeptical attitude toward the EU looked likely

“We have a strong, pro-European government with you at the helm that understands clearly that pulling up bridges and closing hatches isn't a policy that makes sense for our country,” he said.

Some conservative ministers from the old government kept their jobs, notably Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner. But the important Finance Ministry went from the People's Party to the Social Democrats, with Markus Marterbauer taking the job.

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Moulson reported from Berlin.