Immigration hardliner Karl Nehammer to be Austria’s new leader after strongman Kurz and successor Schallenberg quit
- Interior minister Nehammer, a 49-year-old former soldier, says he is ‘unanimously appointed’ as party head and chancellor candidate
- Kurz pulls out of politics after stepping down as chancellor in October amid corruption probe; Schallenberg says he ‘did not want to be party leader’
The leadership of Austria’s ruling conservatives have picked Interior Minister Karl Nehammer as the party’s next leader and the country’s next chancellor, he said in a statement on Friday.
Nehammer, a 49-year-old former soldier, has been the enforcer of outgoing party leader Sebastian Kurz’s hard line on immigration. Kurz said on Thursday he was quitting politics prompting his ally, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg, to say he too would step down.
“I wanted to announce that today I was unanimously appointed by the OeVP (People’s Party) leadership as party head and at the same time as the chancellor candidate,” Nehammer told reporters.
He needs the backing of his party’s junior coalition partners, the Greens, and the approval of Austria’s president, which is considered a formality.
Nehammer said he planned to maintain the central law-and-order themes of Kurz’s two stints as chancellor since 2017.
“It is important to me as the new leader of the People’s Party that we hold our lines, that we say clearly what is necessary when it comes to the issue of migration and asylum, when it comes to the issue of security for people in our country,” Nehammer said.
He also said fighting coronavirus would be a top priority. Austria is currently in lockdown as authorities seek to ease pressure on hospitals dealing with still-high infection rates.
