Shadow Chancellor, Chancellor. Ex-Chancellor.
(Photo: imago images / photonews.at)
Vienna Austria’s Federal Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) makes his office available. A spokesman for the Chancellor announced on Thursday. Finance Minister Gernot Blümel is also stepping down, as he announced that evening. In the morning, Schallenberg’s predecessor Sebastian Kurz announced his retirement from politics.
The 35-year-old resigned at the beginning of October after corruption allegations because he had become intolerable for his green coalition partner and also for parts of his Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). Since then his successor has been the former Foreign Minister Schallenberg. Briefly, however, remained party leader and took over the chairmanship of the ÖVP parliamentary group. Until now. Kurz resigns as a faction leader, and on Friday the ÖVP board is to elect a new party leader.
Interior minister Karl Nehammer could become the new ÖVP boss, government circles say. In a further step, he could then also replace Schallenberg as Federal Chancellor, since the two functions traditionally lie in one hand.
“It is not my intention and has never been my goal to take over the function of federal party leader of the New People’s Party,” said Schallenberg after the resignation announcement. “I am of the firm opinion that both offices – head of government and federal party chairman of the strongest party in Austria – should quickly be reunited in one hand.”
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Nehammer is a confidante of Kurz and began his political career in Lower Austria. The ÖVP there is particularly influential within the party. It seems to strive to quickly fill the power vacuum created by Kurz’s retreat.
His departure from politics came as a surprise on Thursday, speculation that he was planning a comeback as soon as the allegations against him were clarified in court. Apparently he has realized that this is a matter of months or years rather than weeks. The catastrophic poll results since October also contributed to the insight. A return at a later point in time cannot be ruled out, but has become less likely.
Ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announces political withdrawal
Briefly, an affair about an allegedly bought coverage in the tabloid “Austria” and the way in which he had spoken to confidants about opponents and party friends had become politically fatal. Previously, a case of false testimony had been initiated against him before the parliamentary committee of inquiry in the wake of the “Ibiza” affair.
In his declaration of resignation, Kurz said that “the defense against accusations, allegations, allegations and proceedings” was exhausting for him. He admitted more clearly than before that he had made mistakes and, in some cases, did not live up to his own standards. Kurz once started with the promise to introduce a new style into Austria’s politics without the usual manipulations and intrigues.
On Thursday he himself summed up the fact that little was left of it in the end: “I am neither a saint nor a criminal. I am a person. ”Kurz’s political career had already begun in his youth: as a teenager he joined the ÖVP and quickly made a career in the youth organization. Through clever management policy and a good dose of ruthlessness, he succeeded in taking over the ailing party in 2017.
More: “My passion has become a little less”: Sebastian Kurz retires from politics