The ruling People’s Party has chosen Sebastian Kurz’s current interior minister to succeed him as party leader. Karl Nehammer is largely projected to take over as Austria’s next chancellor.
Austria’s ruling People’s Party (VP) chose Interior Minister Karl Nehammer as the party’s next leader and the country’s likely next chancellor on Friday.
At a meeting of the center-right party’s top brass in Vienna, the decision was taken.
Accepting Nehammer’s candidacy and swearing him in will now be up to Austria’s president, but this is essentially a formality.
Nehammer’s appointment comes just a day after current party leader Sebastian Kurz, who is embroiled in a corruption investigation, announced his resignation.
Kurz’s resignation set off a chain reaction, forcing Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg, who had only been nominated to the position in October, to propose to resign so that the chancellorship and party leadership could be held by the same person.
Kurz served as Austrian Chancellor twice, from December 2017 to May 2019 and again from January to October 2020, before being forced to resign due to the bribery scandal.
