For this to happen, the now ongoing blue-black coalition negotiations would have to drag on for more than three weeks and the new government would only take office from February 6. Second place would already be on February 1. The longest government formation so far lasted a total of 129 days: After the election on November 18, 1962, negotiations between ÖVP and SPÖ dragged on for months before the two parties finally reluctantly agreed on a new edition of the Grand Coalition, which was appointed by Federal President Adolf Schärf on March 27, 1963.

Second Longest Government Formation

Only five days shorter was the time it took 25 years ago before the first black-blue coalition came into office. The complicated initial situation back then has quite a few parallels to the current situation. The situation after the election on October 3, 1999 was just as tricky: The SPÖ, which had the most votes, ruled out a coalition with the FPÖ, which had landed in second place for the first time, and the third-ranked ÖVP wanted to go into opposition. Weeks-long coalition negotiations between SPÖ and ÖVP failed, then things moved quickly. Just two weeks later, on February 4, the - already parallelly built - first black-blue coalition under ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel was sworn in. It was the only time so far that someone other than the person appointed by the Federal President to form the government after the election was finally sworn in as Chancellor.

(APA/Red)

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