On january 5th Christian Stocker drove to a leadership meeting of the People’s Party (ÖVP) wearing jeans, expecting to resign from his job as party secretary-general. Coalition talks with the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the liberal NEOS had failed; Karl Nehammer, the ÖVP leader and chancellor, had stepped down. Instead, a few hours later Mr Stocker emerged in a blue suit (quickly driven over from his home) to announce that as the acting party leader he would conduct talks with the hard-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) to form a government led by Herbert Kickl, the FPÖ’s head.