Austrian Foreign Minister will temporarily lead country as interim leader
(MENAFN) Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will temporarily lead the country as interim leader, while the far-right Freedom Party works to establish a new coalition government, according to an announcement from the Austrian presidency on Wednesday. Schallenberg, 55, is stepping in after Chancellor Karl Nehammer resigned over the weekend following unsuccessful efforts to form a coalition without the Freedom Party. Nehammer is expected to leave office on Friday. The presidency confirmed that President Alexander Van der Bellen has formally assigned Schallenberg with "managing the chancellery and leading the provisional government."
This will mark Schallenberg's second time as interim chancellor, and it is expected to be as brief as his previous tenure. He served as chancellor for less than two months in late 2021 before Sebastian Kurz’s resignation, at which point he returned to the role of foreign minister. The far-right, anti-immigration, and anti-EU Freedom Party, which is also pro-Russia, won the parliamentary elections in September. Initially, other parties rejected cooperation with them, but after Nehammer's resignation, his Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) changed course and began considering a partnership with Herbert Kickl's Freedom Party.
Kickl has been tasked with forming a national government, marking the first time a far-right party would lead since World War II. However, the process of government formation could take weeks or months, and there is no guarantee it will succeed. Schallenberg stated that he would not remain in the government under Kickl's leadership.
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