Austria’s Greens must approve coalition with conservatives at party conference
The Austrian Green Party’s Federal Congress will meet today to deliberate forming a coalition with Sebastian Kurz’s conservative Austrian People’s Party.
The Greens’ congress, composed of national, local, and European lawmakers, is expected to sign off on becoming the junior partner in a government with Austria’s conservatives. If approved, the environmentalists will enter the government for the first time.
The coalition deal allows for Kurz’s conservatives to continue to strike a hard line on immigration and lower corporate taxes, while Greens won concessions such as a carbon tax system and measures to produce 100% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
Although the Green Party conference is likely to endorse the power-sharing deal with Austria’s conservatives, expect tensions to emerge as the Greens are opposed to Kurz’s tough stance on migrants. However, cooperation between conservatives and environmentalists in Austria may offer inspiration for other European countries, such as Germany, where politicians hope traditional social democratic parties can cooperate with surging environmentalist movements.
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