Karl Nehammer, New Austrian Chancellor: Ex Soldier and Iron Fist against Immigration

Austria puts an end to your last crisis. The exit of the former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, which announced on Thursday that he leaves politics for being disen

Karl Nehammer, New Austrian Chancellor: Ex Soldier and Iron Fist against Immigration

Austria puts an end to your last crisis. The exit of the former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, which announced on Thursday that he leaves politics for being disenchanted, caused an earthquake that left the ruler of Austrian Popular Party (ÖVP) without head, as well as ran out with several resignations. This Friday, after an emergency meeting, the training unanimously appointed the Minister of Interior, Karl Nehammer, 49, as a new head of the training and leader of the coalition that the conservatives form with the greens.

Of all the challenges to which the new Chancellor will have to face, which has announced a government remodel, is dealing with the progress of the pandemic, which has left the country confined and in social tension by the protests against the 'cerroja '.

Born in Vienna in 1972, his career was not focused from the beginning to politics. After finishing the baccalaureate and performing mandatory military service, he decided to continue other four years in the army to ascended to Lieutenant, since he retired in 1997.

Before entering the ÖVP, he studied a master's degree in political communication and worked several years as an advisor in institutions and positions linked to the Conservative Party.

He is married to his party companion Katharina Nehammer, with whom he has two children.

Currently has a wide network of support among the popular and is considered a faithful leader to its training, but its beginnings are in the union association of the ÖVP, the so-called workers' union of Austria (ÖAAB), of which it was Secretary General and President after being appointed in 2015.

From there he was ascending in the ranks of the game until he took off as a councilor of one of the districts of Vienna. In 2018 he assumed the General Secretariat of the Party, since he played until January 2020, after being appointed inland holder during the Kurz Legislature.

If NEHAMMER is known for something, it is because of its iron fist against illegal immigration. In fact, as an interior minister he scored the distinctive policy of the former Chancellor Kurz in his effort to strengthen border controls to avoid another European migratory crisis such as 2015.

Its hard line on asylum caused them to rain harsh criticism by several NGOs by ordering the hot refund of minors, as well as advocating to return to migrants rescued in the Mediterranean in its journey to reach European soil.

The future Chancellor also opposed August last to Afghans who collaborated with NATO were evacuated to Europe after the withdrawal of international troops, despite the danger that it supposed to stay in Afghanistan with the return to the power of the Taliban.

One of the biggest scandals of his career and who made his popularity as an interior holder was a negligence in the Islamist attack in Vienna in November 2020, which left four dead and twenty-wounded. Austrian intelligence services ignored months before the attack A notice of Slovakia's secret services, which warned that the terrorist involved had tried to buy ammunition for a rifle in that country.

Disueling the criticisms launched by the opposition, Nehammer admitted that "intolerable mistakes" were committed in the management of sensitive information about the jihadist, but blamed his predecessor of extreme right Herbert Kickl by the State in which the ministry was found after his leadership.

Date Of Update: 04 December 2021, 07:09