Austrian far-right leader meets president as expectations mount he will be asked to form government

Austrian Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl is meeting the country’s president as expectations mount that he will be tasked with trying to form a new government, which would be the first led by the far right since World War II. Kickl’s party won Austria’s parliamentary election in September, beating outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party into second place. But in October, President Alexander Van der Bellen tasked Nehammer with trying to form a new government after other parties refused to work with Kickl. Those efforts to form a governing alliance without the far right collapsed in the first few days of the new year and Nehammer said Saturday that he would resign.