Austrian Foreign Minister Schallenberg to serve as country’s interim leader
8 January 2025, 14:04
The move comes as the far-right Freedom Party attempts to put together a new coalition government.
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will serve as the country’s interim leader while the far-right Freedom Party attempts to put together a new coalition government, the president’s office said.
Mr Schallenberg, 55, will take on the duties of outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who announced his resignation over the weekend after his efforts to put together a coalition without the Freedom Party collapsed.
Mr Nehammer plans to step down on Friday.
President Alexander Van der Bellen’s office said that the head of state will formally task Mr Schallenberg with “continuing the management of the chancellery and leading the interim government”.
It will be Mr Schallenberg’s second – and, again, likely brief = stint as Austria’s leader.
He served as chancellor for less than two months in late 2021 after Sebastian Kurz resigned, before passing the job to Mr Nehammer and returning to the Foreign Ministry.
The anti-immigration, Eurosceptic and Russia-friendly Freedom Party won Austria’s parliamentary election in September, but was initially shunned by other parties.
After Mr Nehammer announced his resignation, his conservative Austrian People’s Party made an abrupt U-turn on its previous refusal to contemplate working with the Freedom Party under its leader, Herbert Kickl.
On Monday, Mr Kickl received a mandate to try to form what would be the first national government led by the far right since the Second World War. That is a process that could take weeks or months, and is not guaranteed to succeed.
Mr Schallenberg has said he would not stay in the government under Mr Kickl.
People’s Party leader Mr Kickl says he will approach talks on a coalition with clear expectations, including “an awareness of who won the election” and “an understanding of who is responsible for the mistakes of the past”. He said he is prepared for new elections if the talks fail.
The conservatives’ interim leader, Christian Stocker, said he will meet Mr Kickl. He says he wants “honest answers to questions that are important for us and Austria”.
“There must be an honest answer to whether we want to be a constructive and reliable part of the European Union, or the opposite,” he said.
“There must be an honest answer to whether we want to orient ourselves toward the free world, or toward dictatorships.”
