Schallenberg returns: Chancellor's interior in stormy times!

Schallenberg returns: Chancellor's interior in stormy times!

An unexpected shock for Austrian politics! Alexander Schallenberg (55), previously Foreign Minister, temporarily returns to the Chancellery after Karl Nehammer resigned. Schallenberg, as the oldest member of the government, has already held this position once, from October to December 2021, during the Corona pandemic. This return takes place in an extremely tense political situation in which the formation of a new government after Nehammer's resignation in the suspension is, as today . He will also continue to lead the Foreign Ministry, but it is likely that he will give up his office in a formal blue-black coalition.

A central point of the political reorganization is Schallenberg's refusal to continue to be foreign minister, led by Herbert Kickl, the head of the FPÖ. In an interview, he said in May 2023 that he could not imagine a government under Kickl's management; His resignation in this case was a certainty, as well as the press . Kickl's Secretary General Christian Hafeneck rejected Schallenberg's position and emphasized that in a federal government he had no space for a foreign minister who only regarded neutrality as a lip service. Schallenberg, Foreign Minister since 2019, is now in the middle of the turbulent coalition talks between the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS, whereby his future role in the negotiations remains unclear.