Austria's two largest parties, the Social Democrats (SPOe) and the People's Party (OeVP), agreed Sunday to join hands again to form a new grand coalition government.
The agreement comes almost two months after the Social Democrats won the most votes in the Sept. 28 parliamentary elections, but not enough to govern alone. The People's Party finished second in the vote.
The primary task of the new government is to overcome the current financial crisis by carrying out nationwide administrative reforms, Werner Faymann and Josef Proell, presidents of the SPOe and OeVP, told a joint press conference here.
Faymann will be Austria's new chancellor and Proell his deputy.
Faymann said he hoped the new Austrian government will be a more enterprising governing group with teamwork spirit and greater respect for public opinions.
He stressed that the new government will not "become a government that will only let people hear new disputes."
"The present Austria needs a government that is able to make the right decisions more than at any other time." Proll said.
Proell added that, as a co-governing party, the OeVP under his leadership will adopt a "constructive" attitude.
The present Austrian coalition government came to power after the January 2007 election.
Due to differences with SPOe, OeVP had said on July 7 it would not govern the country together with SPOe any more.
The following day, major parties in the Austrian national council agreed to bring forward the election to the end of September.
However, the Sept. 28 election did not produce an outright winner. The two major parties had been negotiating a power sharing deal since then.
Source: Xinhua
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