Austrian conservatives ready to continue talks

Nov 16, 2006, 17:34 GMT

Vienna ­ Wolfgang Schuessel, Austria's acting conservative chancellor, said Thursday his party was willing to resume coalition talks with the election-winning Social Democrats, provided they agreed to certain conditions.

Schuessel's People?s Party walked away from negotiations and had been sulking for the past two weeks, after the Social Democrats supported a vote for parliamentary probes into decisions made by the conservative government.

Only after public opinion showed a negative reaction to Schuessel's decision and the Social Democrats were ostensibly working on setting up a minority government, the conservatives decided ?build a bridge' to the Social Democrats.

A precondition for talks was that the Social Democrats agreed not to vote against the People's Party any more in parliament, Schuessel said.

At a news conference in Vienna, Schuessel said he wanted to discuss his offer with Social Democrat party leader Alfred Gusenbauer on Friday, and talks could resume next week.

Schuessel said a minority government would bring instability to the country and put it at a disadvantage.

Gusenbauer's Social Democrats won a surprise victory in the October 1 general elections, unseating the centre right coalition led by the People's Party. Red-green, the coalition option favoured by the Social Democrats does not have a majority in Austria's parliament, so a German-style grand coalition was regarded the only workable solution.

Gusenbauer ruled out a coalition with the two small rightist parties, but would have to depend on their support should he form a minority government.

Austrians are getting fed up with the lack of progress and the conservatives' erratic behaviour. New elections would favour the Greens and Social Democrats, recent opinion polls said.