A EU country has blocked an election winning party from taking power just weeks after the US warned the bloc that "the voice of the people matters".

Three parties in Austria have reached a deal to form a new centrist Austrian government, two weeks after a far-right party that won an election in September failed to put together an administration.

The conservative Austrian People's Party, the centre-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos agreed on a program for a coalition after what Christian Stocker, who is expected to become chancellor, called “perhaps the most difficult negotiations on a government in the history of our country.”

The agreement between the three losing parties in the September elections comes after the winning Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl, failed to put together a coalition with the People’s Party, which finished second in the election after negotiations collapsed.

Posting on X, Mr Kickl raged: “The most expensive government of all times presents us with the worst program of all times, a low point for Austria!”

Mr Stocker, 64, is now widely expected to become the new leader of Austria,

The deal reached by the three coalition parties still needs formal approval from the leadership of the two bigger parties and a two-thirds majority of Neos members at a convention expected on Sunday.

The US Vice President JD Vance told European leaders in a speech in Munich earlier this month that the continent faced trouble "from within" over what he claimed were erosions of "free speech".

The American politician also questioned the overturning of election results in Romania, which joined the EU in 2007.

The elections had been quashed after fears of Russian interference, but Mr Vance said: "If your democracy can be destroyed with a few $100,000 of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn't very strong to begin with."

He told EU figures that "the voice of the people matters".

Mr Vance also clashed with Sir Keir Starmer in the White House today (Thursday) as he repeated his free speech claims concerning the UK, to which the PM robustly responded saying Britain has had a tradition of free speech for "a very, very long time".

But as Mr Vance tussled with Mr Starmer in Washington, another EU nation has announced it is not allowing an election-winning party to take over power.