Sebastian Kurz’s successor as Austrian Chancellor has only been in office since the beginning of October.
(Photo: AP)
Vienna Austria’s Federal Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) makes his office available. A spokesman for the Chancellor announced on Thursday. In the morning his predecessor Sebastian Kurz announced his withdrawal 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. Behind the scenes it is said that he could also replace Schallenberg as Federal Chancellor in a further step, since the two functions traditionally lie in one hand.
Kurz’s withdrawal from politics comes as a surprise, as there was 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.
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More: “My passion has become a little less”: Sebastian Kurz retires from politics