AUSTRIA'S TWO main political parties agreed a new programme for government yesterday that leaves open the question of ratification by referendum of future EU treaties.
The conservative People's Party (ÖVP) agreed to return yesterday as junior partner to the Social Democrats (SPÖ) under its new leader and future chancellor, Werner Faymann.
Mr Faymann's call for future EU treaties to be ratified by popular vote caused the ÖVP to pull out of government after just 20 months last July. Both parties lost support in the subsequent snap election, polling their worst results since the second World War, as support surged for two far-right populist parties.
Yesterday evening, Mr Faymann and new ÖVP leader Joseph Pröll said they would re-enter government by agreeing to disagree on the referendum issue.
According to the 200-page coalition agreement, the government will fall and new elections will be called if one party tries to push for a referendum "against the will of the other".
The 48-year-old Mr Faymann said yesterday he hadn't changed his views on referendums. With no new EU treaty on the horizon, he said the coalition agreement would "give time to convince the other party" to change its mind.
Mr Pröll insisted, meanwhile, that the programme means "there can be no referendum against our will".
"Austria needs a government more than ever that can answer the crucial issues of the day," he said, before admitting that "not everyone was happy with the result" of 56 days of coalition negotiations.
Outgoing foreign minister Ursula Plassnik said she would not be returning to the cabinet because of the EU compromise.
"This is simply not enough for me," said Ms Plassnik yesterday. "In my opinion, the SPÖ should have put their demand for EU referenda on ice for this legislative period."
Apart from the changes at the top, Austria's new government sees little change in the distribution of ministries: the SPÖ retains the social portfolios, while the ÖVP retains control of foreign, finance, justice and economic ministries. Political observers in Vienna called the EU compromise a face-saving solution with unpredictable consequences.
"It doesn't answer the key question and puts it instead on the long finger without making it any less virulent," said Dr Thomas Hofer of the HP Public Affairs Think Tank. "It means less clarity for Austria's EU partners about its intentions in the union."