The victory of Norbert Hofer in the Austrian presidential election sent shockwaves across the world. For the first time in the modern era, a European nation had elected a far-right president. Though often considered a symbolic office, little known to most observers ahead of the election, the President is invested with a great degree of power: the ability to appoint and dismiss the Chancellor and cabinet at will, sign and veto laws, and rule by emergency decree under some circumstances. Austria's status as a parliamentary, rather than semi-presidential, nation is largely a result of convention and tradition. During the campaign, Hofer called for early parliamentary elections to be held. One need look no further than opinion polls, which throughout 2015-16 placed the Freedom Party clearly in first place, to find his motives. The President also has the power to dissolve the National Council at the request of the cabinet, and as soon as he took office, Hofer began negotiations with the government to do just that.
The SPÖ, led by new Chancellor Christian Kern on just this third month on the job, were starting to see a recovery in their popularity, while their junior partner the ÖVP were staring down the barrel of a historically bad result. Neither were particularly keen. But with Hofer taking such strong initiative, all were wary of what could happen if they refused. FPÖ leaders began to suggest that Hofer could dismiss the government and simply appoint another which would request the dissolution. The SPÖ and ÖVP proposed that an election be held ahead of schedule the next year, but Hofer refused to accept a compromise. He threatened to veto the government's legislation if they did not relent. Faced with a brewing constitutional crisis and the prospect of gridlock for the remainder of the term, and hoping that Hofer's antics had soured the public against the FPÖ, Kern and the SPÖ took the gamble. The ÖVP were scathing, accusing the Social Democrats of throwing in with Strache, but they were powerless to prevent it.
While the Freedom Party saw a small dip ahead of the election, circumstances failed to avert catastrophe. Hans-Christian Strache led them to a sweeping victory with just under a third of the vote. Most of their new support flowed from disgruntled ÖVP voters and former supporters of Team Stronach and the BZÖ, as well as non-voters. They won a plurality in seven of the nine federal states, with only Vienna and Burgenland remaining stalwart for the SPÖ. The Social Democrats managed to avoid total disaster, recording a slight improvement from 2013, but nonetheless finishing a relatively distant second. On the other hand, the ÖVP's worst fears were realised as they crashed to below 20%. The Greens remained steady on 12%, and NEOS improved to 6.5%.
Government formation was anything but straight-forward. The FPÖ were quickly forced to admit that, like Haider before him, nobody would accept Hans-Christian Strache as Chancellor. Some demanded that Hofer appoint him anyway but, despite his success in wrecking the previous government, the President found himself constrained in building one responsible to a parliamentary majority. The SPÖ had made tentative moves toward reconciliation with the Freedom Party ahead of the election, and stated that they were open to discussions. A series of constellations excluding the FPÖ were ruled out by various parties, most significantly the ÖVP, who resolved to retreat to opposition and leave the Social Democrats to clean up the mess. Reinhold Mitterlehner was immediately jettisoned and, to the surprise of few, succeeded by foreign minister Sebastian Kurz. With alternatives exhausted, long and difficult negotiations began between the FPÖ and SPÖ. They forged a compromise reminiscent of the modern FPÖ's first stint in government under Wolfgang Schüssel, with Christian Kern remaining Chancellor while the FPÖ took a majority of cabinet posts; Strache also remained outside of cabinet.
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