Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) has already announced that he will make the office available. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer is acting as the new head of government and party chairman. There is already speculation in the newspapers about further reshuffles – and opinion researchers see it as “political logic” that the ÖVP team is now being restructured more broadly.
With Kurz’s withdrawal, the crisis is “of course not over”, said the political scientist Peter Filzmaier in the Ö1 “Abendjournal”. The ÖVP had to find the “way of demarcating Kurz” – especially since the federal party is also listed as a suspect in the investigations of the economic and corruption prosecutor’s office. Larger personal castling is required immediately. Because the “slice of salami tactics” since Kurz’s departure as Chancellor have hurt. This mistake – installing a new chancellor now and then later at some point new ministers – shouldn’t be repeated, said Filzmaier. The distancing will not be easy, of course, since in the past few years “dozen, if not hundreds of people have been selected for loyalty too short” when it comes to staffing in ministerial offices and party organizations.
Political advisor Thomas Hofer is also assuming a broader government reshuffle. It would be “at least the political logic” that a new chancellor and ÖVP boss put together his team, he said in the ORF interview. There is much to be said for Nehammer to rise to the top of the ÖVP – especially since someone would become Chancellor who can lead the ÖVP into the next election. A very likely replacement candidate is Finance Minister Gernot Blümel – as a close confidante of Kurz, who is also listed as a suspect by the WKStA, and also “because of the chat history”.
According to online reports from some media – “Kronen Zeitung”, “Austria”, “Kleine Zeitung” and “Heute” – Thursday evening, the fact that Nehammer Kurz will succeed him as party chairman and Schallenberg as chancellor was almost certain. An important indication of this is that Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the head of the most powerful regional party, is behind the Lower Austrian – who also comes from the ÖAAB and is therefore strongly anchored in the party.
There was also speculation about further personnel damage. According to “Kurier”, some ministers were fighting for their political survival. Above all Blümel – who should only have shown himself ready to give way after hours of talks. The National Bank Vice-Governor Gottfried Haber is named as a possible successor.
Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger was also in the closest circle of Kurz ‘and is therefore the replacement candidate – and Economics Minister Margarete Schramböck, who has been badly battered since the “Kaufhaus Österreich” flop.
Video: Kurz withdraws from politics
Pilsl as Minister of the Interior in conversation
Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler could hope for a rise. She is said to have been favored by some ÖVP grandees for the Chancellery – but in the end she was considered Nehammer’s successor in the Ministry of the Interior. But the Upper Austrian State Police Director Andreas Pilsl was also in discussion. If it is Edtstadler, Schallenberg could take over her post and thus Michael Linhart – who had stepped in as Foreign Minister – remain in office. And defense minister Klaudia Tanner, former director of the Lower Austrian farmers’ union, could succeed Köstinger according to “Kurier” – which would require someone new for the defense.
The wish of some opposition politicians for new elections is unlikely to come true: Hofer does not expect this, because the polls for the ÖVP are currently “disastrous”. From the point of view of the political advisor, this also contributed to Kurz’s step today: he was able to read from the surveys that were always very important to him that “his charisma has collapsed dramatically” – and that probably has him, along with the investigations and the voice that has become stronger again of the countries, brought to the realization that it “no longer works out” for him, Hofer was convinced that the newly born son was not the only reason for Kurz’s withdrawal.
Source From: Nachrichten
