VIENNA, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday tasked Freedom Party's leader Herbert Kickl with forming a new government.
The move came after the collapse of three-party coalition talks among the People's Party, the Social Democratic Party and the NEOS and later the failure of two-party negotiations following the NEOS' withdrawal.
In last September's parliamentary election, the far-right Freedom Party came first with around 29 percent of the vote, followed by the People's Party and the Social Democratic Party with 26.3 percent and 21.1 percent respectively. ■