Austria: Foreign Minister Schallenberg becomes interim chancellor

In Austria, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg is to lead the incumbent coalition as the new Chancellor until the upcoming change of government. Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen announced on Wednesday that he would entrust the 55-year-old ÖVP politician “with the continuation of the administration of the Federal Chancellery” on Friday.

The previous Chancellor and ÖVP leader Karl Nehammer announced his resignation on Saturday. Previously, coalition negotiations between the conservative ÖVP and the social democratic SPÖ had failed, as had three-way talks with the liberal Neos.

Van der Bellen has therefore commissioned the controversial leader of the right-wing FPÖ, Herbert Kickl, to explore forming a government in coalition talks with the ÖVP. The Russia-friendly and EU-sceptic FPÖ won the election in the fall and relegated the previous chancellor’s party ÖVP to second place.

Nehammer wants to formally resign on Friday. On the same day, Schallenberg will temporarily take over the administration of the Federal Chancellery and the chairmanship of the government in addition to his ministerial office.

Schallenberg does not want to be part of an FPÖ-led government. He has served as Austria’s chief diplomat since 2019 – with a short interruption: at the end of 2021, he also took over the Chancellery for a few weeks during a political transition phase. He now has the task of temporarily continuing the current cabinet made up of conservative and Green ministers.