Austria’s new government takes office after a 5-month wait for a new administration

VIENNA (AP) — Christian Stocker was sworn in as Austrian chancellor on Monday as a new government, a three-party coalition, took office after a five-month wait following elections in September.

The new government will have to deal with rising unemployment, a recession and a creaking budget. Its coalition agreement, presented on Thursday after the longest negotiations in post-World War II Austria, also foresees strict new asylum rules in the European Union country of 9 million people.

This is the country’s first three-party government, bringing together Stocker’s conservative Austrian People’s Party, the center-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos. The alliance in the political center came together only at the second attempt after the far-right Freedom Party emerged as the strongest political force in a parliamentary election on Sept. 29.