Foreign Minister moves up
Austria: Schallenberg is acting chancellor
Updated on January 10, 2025 – 12:06 p.mReading time: 1 min.
Chief diplomat Alexander Schallenberg gets an additional task. He should lead the government – until a new cabinet is found. Negotiations for an FPÖ-ÖVP coalition are underway.
Austria has a new acting chancellor. Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen entrusted Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) with the duties of head of government. This means that the currently longest-serving minister is now at the head of the so-called interim federal government, said the head of state. The previous Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) announced his withdrawal in response to the failure of his efforts to form a center coalition.
Three months after the parliamentary elections, Austria is still looking for a new coalition. Now the right-wing FPÖ and the conservative ÖVP have started alliance negotiations. The ÖVP had previously been unable to agree on a program with other parties.
The conservatives had long rejected cooperation with FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl. After Nehammer’s withdrawal, the party made a remarkable change of course.
Schallenberg does not want to be part of an FPÖ-led government. The 55-year-old has been Austria’s chief diplomat since 2019 – with a short interruption: at the end of 2021, he also took over the Chancellery for a few weeks during a political transition phase. He now has the task of temporarily continuing the current cabinet made up of ministers from the ÖVP and the Greens.
