AUSTRIAN President Alexander van der Bellen announced today he would meet Herbert Kickl, as speculation grows that he will ask the far-right leader to form a government.

Mr Van der Bellen made the announcement after meeting with Chancellor Karl Nehammer and others at his presidential palace. 

Mr Nehammer has announced his intention to resign after coalition talks between his right-wing Austrian People’s Party and the Social Democrats collapsed.

Mr Nehammer has ruled out working with Mr Kickl, who leads the Freedom Party, but others in his party are less adamant. 

Earlier on Sunday, the PP nominated its general secretary, Christian Stocker, as interim leader, but the president said Mr Nehammer would remain chancellor for now.

President Van der Bellen said that he had spent several hours talking to key officials, after which he got the impression that “the voices within the PP who exclude working with the Freedom Party under its leader Herbert Kickl have become quieter.”

The president said this development has “potentially opened a new path,” which has prompted him to invite Mr Kickl for a meeting on Monday morning.

The Freedom Party topped the polls in the autumn’s national election with 29.2 per cent of the vote, but the president tasked Mr Nehammer with putting together a new government because no other party was willing to work with Mr Kickl.