Only once - 62 years ago - in the Second Republic after National Council elections, it took longer for a new government to be sworn in. If the blue-black coalition negotiations do not proceed surprisingly quickly and the new ministerial team does not take office by next Wednesday, the current record duration will also be exceeded.

Government Formation Heading Towards Record Length

The longest government formation since 1945 lasted a total of 129 days: After the election on November 18, 1962, negotiations between the ÖVP and SPÖ dragged on for months before the two parties finally reluctantly agreed - for the last time before the phase of single-party governments - on a new edition of the Grand Coalition. The government under Chancellor Alfons Gorbach (ÖVP) was appointed by Federal President Adolf Schärf on March 27, 1963.

The current government formation process stands at day 124 as of this Friday. This means that the record for the second longest duration has already been broken at midnight. 25 years ago, it took a total of 124 days before the first black-blue coalition came into office. The complicated initial situation after the election on October 3, 1999, has quite a few parallels to the current situation: The SPÖ, which received the most votes, ruled out a coalition with the FPÖ, which came in second place for the first time, and the third-ranked ÖVP wanted to go into opposition. Weeks-long coalition negotiations between the SPÖ and ÖVP failed, then things moved quickly. Just two weeks later, on February 4, the first black-blue coalition under ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel was sworn in.

(APA/Red)

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