This is the second time that Schallenberg has held the leadership of Austria
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will be Austria’s interim leader as the far-right Freedom Party tries to form a new coalition government.
The decision was communicated by the Austrian president’s office.
Schallenberg, 55, will take over from outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who announced his resignation over the weekend after efforts to form a coalition that excluded the Freedom Party failed.
Nehammer intends to resign on Friday.
President Alexander Van der Bellen’s office declared, in a statement, that “the Head of State will formally summon Schallenberg to continue managing the Chancellery and head the provisional Government”.
This is the second time that Schallenberg has held the leadership of Austria.
Schallenberg was chancellor for two months at the end of 2021, after Sebastian Kurz’s resignation, before handing over the position to Nehammer and then returning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The anti-immigration, Eurosceptic and Russia-close Freedom Party won parliamentary elections in Austria in September last year, but was initially rejected by other parties.
After Nehammer announced his resignation, the conservative-oriented Austrian People’s Party reversed its previous refusal to consider working with the Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl.
On Monday, Kickl received a mandate to try to form what would be the first far-right-led government since World War II (1939-1945).
This is a process that can take weeks or months and has no guarantee of continuity.
