• Europe Austria changes its chancellor again, the third so far this legislature

Austria ends its latest crisis.

The departure of former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who announced on Thursday that he is leaving politics out of disenchantment, sparked an earthquake that left the ruling Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) headless, as well as several resignations.

This Friday, after an emergency meeting, the formation unanimously appointed Interior Minister

Karl Nehammer,

49, as the new head of the formation and leader of the coalition that the conservatives form with the Greens.

Of all the challenges that the new chancellor will have to face, who has announced a reshuffle of the government, is dealing with the advance of the pandemic, which has left the country confined and in social tension due to the protests against the 'cerrojazo '.

Former military man and married to a party partner

Born in Vienna in 1972, his career was not focused from the beginning on politics.

After finishing high school and completing compulsory military service, he decided to continue another four years in the Army until he was promoted to lieutenant, a position from which he retired in 1997.

Before joining the ÖVP, he studied a master's degree in Political Communication and worked for several years as a consultant in institutions and positions linked to the Conservative party.

He is

married to his party partner Katharina Nehammer

, with whom he has two children.

Political career

He currently has a wide network of support among the popular and is considered a leader faithful to his training, but his beginnings are located in the union association of the ÖVP, the so-called Union of Austrian Workers (ÖAAB), of which he was Secretary General and President after being appointed in 2015.

From there he rose through the ranks of the party until he took off as a councilor for one of the districts of Vienna.

In 2018 he assumed the party's general secretariat, a

position he held until January 2020, after being appointed Minister of the Interior during Kurz's term.

Iron fist on immigration matters

If Nehammer is known for one thing, it is for his iron fist against illegal immigration.

Indeed, as Interior Minister he marked the distinctive policy of former Chancellor Kurz in his efforts to tighten border controls to prevent another European migration crisis like the one in 2015.

His hard line on asylum led to harsh criticism from various NGOs for ordering the hot return of minors, as well as advocating for the return of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean on their journey to reach European soil.

The future chancellor also opposed last August that Afghans who collaborated with NATO were evacuated to Europe after the withdrawal of international troops, despite the danger posed for many by staying in Afghanistan with the return to power of the Taliban.

Scandal over the 2020 attacks

One of the biggest scandals of his career and that caused his popularity as head of the Interior to fall was negligence in the Islamist attack in Vienna in November 2020, which left four dead and about twenty injured.

The Austrian intelligence services ignored months before the attack a notice from the Slovak secret services, which warned that the terrorist involved had tried to buy ammunition for a rifle in that country.

Ignoring criticism from the opposition, Nehammer admitted that

"intolerable mistakes" were made

in handling sensitive information about the jihadist, but blamed his far-right predecessor Herbert Kickl for the state the ministry was in after his death. leadership.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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