Schallenberg returns: Interim Chancellor in stormy times!

Schallenberg returns: Interim Chancellor in stormy times!

An unexpected shock for Austrian politics! Alexander Schallenberg (55), previously Foreign Minister, is temporarily returning to the Chancellery after Karl Nehammer resigned. Schallenberg, as the longest-serving member of the government, has already held this position once, from October to December 2021, during the corona pandemic. This return comes in an extremely tense political situation in which the formation of a new government is in limbo following Nehammer's resignation Today reported. He will also continue to lead the Foreign Ministry, although it is likely that he will leave his position with a formal blue-black coalition.

A central point of the political reorganization is Schallenberg's refusal to continue as foreign minister under the leadership of Herbert Kickl, the head of the FPÖ. In an interview in May 2023, he stated that he could not imagine a government under Kickl's leadership; His resignation in this case is a certainty, as well The press reported. Kickl's General Secretary Christian Hafenecker rejected Schallenberg's position and emphasized that there was no place in a federal government led by him for a foreign minister who only paid lip service to neutrality. Schallenberg, Foreign Minister since 2019, is now in the middle of the turbulent coalition talks between the ÖVP, SPÖ and Neos, although his future role in the negotiations currently remains unclear.