Karl Nehammer appeared in front of the country and the press around a quarter to twelve at noon in the Political Academy of the ÖVP – at the same place where his predecessor Sebastian Kurz had announced his departure from politics the day before. And the difference was big: Kurz, apparently unimpressed by a situation that must have been a bitter defeat for him, talked for sixteen minutes about himself, his experiences and his disappointments.
At first, Nehammer seemed quite nervous, he allowed questions after his speech, he talked less about himself and the new task than about the pandemic. And he used his first appearance as Chancellor-designate to – politely but unequivocally – to appeal to those compatriots who mistook freedom for selfishness and who, by refusing to receive the Covid vaccination and demonstrating increasingly aggressively, were viewed as unsolidary, as a threat to others proved. He had said something similar in his old role as Minister of the Interior. As soon-to-be-chancellor he made himself a little unpopular with at least some of the voters.
The planned change from Kurz via his placeholder Alexander Schallenberg to Nehammer had leaked out of the ÖVP just a few hours after the party and club leader Kurz, who had been in office until then, announced. It had become necessary because ex-Chancellor Kurz finally threw in the towel under the pressure of public prosecutor investigations into possible corruption and infidelity, but also because of growing unrest in his own party and no longer insisted on returning to Ballhausplatz. Nehammer was deemed to have been set at the latest when the Lower Austrian provincial governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner, in whose party organization the native Viennese had received strong support during his ascent, announced that she thought he was the right man.
Nehammer is considered safe from the judiciary – but he too has his scandals
In any case, there should not have been much resistance to this decision, which the party executive made unanimously on Friday morning. Nehammer, a trained soldier with a master’s degree in political communication, is considered competent in the management reserve of the ÖVP and, currently particularly important, not endangered by the judiciary. He had worked closely with Kurz and apparently also admired him; However, no investigation is currently underway against him, and he was never considered a mere vicarious agent of the turquoise strategists. Nehammer has its own scandals – a legally questionable and unsuccessful raid against the Muslim Brotherhood, deportations of well-integrated schoolgirls, a constitutional protection that failed in counter-terrorism, which was only rebuilt after the attack in Vienna in 2020. But: Karl Nehammer, 49, also has a mind of his own.
There was therefore speculation in the media and in political competition, above all, about how big the cabinet reshuffle would be – and how many of the Kurz Adlaten would have to leave. The names of several women in particular had been mentioned: Minister of Agriculture Elisabeth Köstinger wobbled, Minister of Integration Susanne Raab and Minister of Economic Affairs Margarete Schramböck; all three are considered weak ministers. Ultimately, however, all three were allowed to stay. Instead, education minister Heinz Faßmann was exchanged, who – officially at least – is said to have left voluntarily; he is now being replaced by the rector of the University of Graz, Martin Polaschek. Nehammer’s successor as Minister of the Interior will be the Lower Austrian MP Gerhard Karner, Minister of Finance and thus the successor to Gernot Blümel, who also resigned on Thursday evening via Facebook video, will be the previous State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment, Magnus Brunner.
Predecessor Alexander Schallenberg is allowed back to the Foreign Ministry
It is not a very big liberation that the future chancellor dares to do – maybe because too many new faces mean a lot of uncertainty in the middle of the pandemic, maybe because Nehammer demonstratively doesn’t want a big break with the turquoise ÖVP. Spicy at least: Short-term Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg is allowed back to the Foreign Ministry, from which he comes. What will become of the interim foreign minister and diplomat Michael Linhart, who only vacated his post in Paris for the new office a few weeks ago and confidently insisted on Thursday that he would remain foreign minister, apparently no longer interested anyone in the ÖVP on Friday.
Also spicy: Nehammer sends away the last man from the closest circle around Kurz, Cabinet Chief Bernhard Bonelli, whom Schallenberg had kept as a link to his predecessor. Instead, he brings the just 26-year-old Upper Austrian and head of the Young ÖVP, Claudia Plakolm, to the Chancellery, where she is to become State Secretary.
The green coalition partner, who was naturally not involved in the political restructuring of the government partner, was nevertheless pleased that the black-green cooperation should apparently continue without friction. Party leader Werner Kogler emphasized the always good cooperation with Nehammer, even if there had been bitter arguments about migration and asylum issues. Above all, the deportation of several schoolgirls and their families from Armenia and Georgia put a massive strain on the employment relationship with the interior minister and the coalition last winter. Ultimately, however, the Greens are sticking to the cooperation – after all, it is the first time that they have ever been in government in Austria.