Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg Appointed as Interim Leader

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg Appointed as Interim Leader

Vienna, January 7, 2025: The office of Austria's President announced on Wednesday that Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will serve as the country’s interim leader. He will take on this role as the far-right Freedom Party attempts to form a new coalition government.

Schallenberg, 55, will assume the duties of Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who announced his resignation over the weekend after failing to form a coalition without the Freedom Party. Nehammer is set to step down on Friday.

The President's office stated that Schallenberg would be formally tasked with "continuing the management of the chancellery and leading the interim government."

This will be Schallenberg's second time in this role, though likely a brief one. He previously served as Chancellor for two months in late 2021 after Sebastian Kurz resigned, before passing the role to Nehammer and returning to the Foreign Ministry.

The Freedom Party won Austria's parliamentary elections in September, but other parties initially refused to form a government with them. After Nehammer's resignation, his conservative Austrian People's Party made a sudden shift, now agreeing to form a coalition with the Freedom Party.

On Monday, Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl received a mandate to attempt forming a national government, which could be the first far-right-led government in Austria since World War II. However, the process is not guaranteed to succeed and could take weeks or even months.

Schallenberg has stated that he does not wish to remain in the government under Kickl's leadership.