Austria’s new Federal Chancellor: Alexander Schallenberg sworn in

Austria’s new head of government
“We expect the government to get back to work”: Alexander Schallenberg sworn in as Chancellor

Sebastian takes a step aside, but remains a powerful figure in the background. Ex-Foreign Minister Schallenberg comes to the fore as Austria’s new Chancellor.

© Robert Jaeger / APA / DPA

The former Foreign Minister and top diplomat Alexander Schallenberg has been sworn in as the new Federal Chancellor of Austria. An out of the black-turquoise coalition was thus prevented for the time being.

Two days after Sebastian Kurz resigned from the office of Federal Chancellor, Austria got a new head of government. Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen has sworn in the 52-year-old Alexander Schallenberg as Chancellor. Schallenberg and Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler want to continue the coalition of the conservative ÖVP and the Greens, which has been in power since January 2020. Despite the recent government crisis, there is a solid foundation for it, they assured. “We all expect that the government will now go back to work together and bring something further together,” said Van der Bellen. With his diplomatic skills, Schallenberg has the best prerequisites for this.

The Federal President made both of them personally responsible for ensuring that the alliance worked together in an objective and constructive manner for the benefit of the Austrians. Kurz, who was suspected of corruption, resigned on Saturday evening. That was the condition for the Greens to hold on to the alliance.

Schallenberg has been jointly responsible for Austria’s foreign policy in top positions for years. The multilingual, internationally experienced diplomat is just as tough on migration issues as his predecessor in office. The Austrian diplomat Michael Linhart has been sworn in as the country’s new foreign minister. He was previously Ambassador to Paris and previously Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Opposition criticizes continued existence of “System Kurz”

The government crisis was triggered by investigations by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Close colleagues of the Chancellor are suspected of having bought well-meaning reporting in a media company in order to pave the way for Kurz from 2016 to the party leadership and to the Federal Chancellery. Kurz is also listed as a suspect.

When he left, Kurz again emphasized his innocence. He gave up his office out of responsibility for the country. After the end of the ÖVP-Greens coalition, the chaos of four-party cooperation between the Greens, SPÖ, liberal Neos and right-wing FPÖ threatens. Kurz himself changes from the chancellery to parliament to the seat of the parliamentary group leader of the ÖVP. He also remains party chairman. The opposition criticized this step because the 35-year-old would continue to be an extremely influential political figure and the “Kurz system” would be preserved.

The opposition wants to deal with the new corruption allegations against the 35-year-old in a committee of inquiry. The spokesman for the SPÖ and FPÖ announced on Sunday. A motion for this will probably be tabled in parliament soon.

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DPA
AFP

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