Austria has become the only western European state with a far-right presence in government after its president approved a controversial coalition deal.
Alexander Van der Bellen rubber-stamped the alliance between the conservative People’s party and Heinz-Christian Strache’s far-right Freedom party on Saturday.
A previous coalition between chancellor Christian Kern’s Social Democrats and the People’s party collapsed in May, which resulted in a snap election. The latter won, but fell short of a majority.
It is not the first time the Freedom party has been in government. It was part of a coalition government between 2000 and 2005. There was uproar at the time among EU leaders, and bilateral diplomatic relations were frozen in protest. Strache has moved to clean up the party’s image by suspending members for antisemitic behaviour, including a local councillor for a Nazi salute in October.
Protesters have already taken to the streets to voice their anger over the deal, with nine separate marches have been organised in Vienna for Monday morning, with police estimating about 5,000 protesters will march in the capital.
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