Karl Nehammer (; born 18 October 1972) is an Austrian politician who is the
32nd and current
Chancellor of Austria
The chancellor of the Republic of Austria () is the head of government of the Republic of Austria. The position corresponds to that of Prime Minister in several other parliamentary democracies.
Current officeholder is Karl Nehammer of the Aus ...
since 6 December 2021. A member of the
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), he previously was
Minister of the Interior
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
from 2020 to 2021, general secretary of the ÖVP from 2018 to 2020, as well as a member of the
National Council from 2017 to 2020. Nehammer assumed the chancellorship as the successor of
Alexander Schallenberg
Alexander Georg Nicolas Schallenberg (; born 20 June 1969) is an Austrian diplomat, jurist and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Chancellor Karl Nehammer since 2021, previously holding the office from ...
, who resigned to return as
Minister of Foreign Affairs
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...
.
Early life and education
Nehammer grew up in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, where he attended
Kalksburg College and Amerlingstrasse Grammar School, graduating in 1992. He completed his military service as a
one-year volunteer
A one-year volunteer, short EF ( de: ''Einjährig-Freiwilliger''), was, in a number of national armed forces, a conscript who agreed to pay his own costs for the procurement of equipment, food and clothing, in return for spending a shorter-than-usu ...
with further service until 1996. In 1997 he was discharged as a lieutenant. He then worked as an instructional trainer for information officers for the Federal Ministry of Defence and as a trainer for strategic communication for various institutions, such as the Vocational Promotion Institute (BFI) and the
Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party
The Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party is the educational institution of the Austrian People's Party (Österreichische Volkspartei).
The “Political Academy” supports civic, political and cultural education by means of seminars, ...
.
From 2012, Nehammer completed a two-year university course in
political communication at the
University for Continuing Education Krems
The University for Continuing Education Krems () is an Austrian university specializing in further education for working professionals. It is located in Krems an der Donau, Lower Austria.
Name
The Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Re ...
and graduated with a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. .
Nehammer is a member of the Catholic Austrian Students' Corporations Sonnberg Perchtoldsdorf within the
Mittelschüler-Kartellverband.
Political career
Nehammer became active within the ÖVP party organisation after leaving the military, initially working with the party academy. He was then head of the service and mobilisation department at the party headquarters from 2007–08 and the training and networking department from 2008–09. He then became director of the party academy's
Lower Austria
Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...
association and was considered close to then-deputy governor
Wolfgang Sobotka
Wolfgang Sobotka (born 5 January 1956 in Waidhofen an der Ybbs) is an Austrian teacher, conductor and politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) who has been the president of the Austrian National Council since 20 December 2017.
Early li ...
.
In October 2015, Nehammer was appointed deputy general-secretary and federal organizational speaker of the Austrian Workers' Union (ÖAAB), the trade union association of the ÖVP.
During the
2016 Austrian presidential election, he was appointed replacement manager for the ÖVP's
Andreas Khol
Andreas Khol (born 14 July 1941) is an Austrian politician of the centre-conservative Austrian People's Party, President of the National Council from 2002 to 2006.
Andreas Khol was born in Bergen auf Rügen, Germany, and raised in the town of ...
partway through the campaign, but was unable to save him from a historically poor result of 11%.
He succeeded
August Wöginger
August Wöginger (born 2 November 1974) is an Austrian politician currently serving as parliamentary leader
A parliamentary leader is a political title or a descriptive term used in various countries to designate the person leading a parliament ...
as general-secretary of the ÖAAB in 2016 and held this position until January 2018. In November 2016, he was also elected regional chairman of the ÖAAB Vienna. Since April 2017, he has been district party chairman of the ÖVP in Vienna-
Hietzing
Hietzing () is the 13th municipal District of Vienna (german: 13. Bezirk, Hietzing). It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling. Hietzing is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also contains lar ...
.
In the
2017 federal election, Nehammer was elected as a representative for Vienna. During the subsequent government formation, he was a member of the ÖVP negotiating team in the area of defence. He was elected as deputy chairman of the ÖVP parliamentary faction on 8 November and was appointed media spokesman. On 25 January 2018, he succeeded
Elisabeth Köstinger
Elisabeth Köstinger (born 22 November 1978) is an Austrian politician who has been serving as Minister for Agriculture, Sustainability and Tourism in the government of Chancellors Sebastian Kurz, Alexander Schallenberg, and Karl Nehammer since ...
and Stefan Steiner as general-secretary of the ÖVP. In September 2018, he also succeeded Efgani Dönmez as spokesman for integration and migration.
Nehammer ran in the
2019 federal election in fifth place in the ÖVP Vienna state list, and eleventh place on the ÖVP federal list. He was also one of the ÖVP's five assessors at the electoral authority during the election. In the course of the subsequent government formation, he negotiated in the areas of Europe, migration, integration, and security.
Minister of the Interior
Nehammer was appointed minister of the interior in the
second Kurz government
The Second Kurz government (german: Zweite Bundesregierung Kurz or ''Kurz II'' for short) was the 33rd Government of Austria. Led by Sebastian Kurz as chancellor and Werner Kogler as vice-chancellor, it was sworn in by President Alexander Van der ...
, and was sworn in on 7 January. Under his leadership, the Austrian government filed charges in mid-2020 against a person who had confessed to spying for Turkey’s secret service. He was one of three public crisis managers during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, with responsibility for the enforcement of
lockdowns
A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely.
The term is used for a prison ...
and restrictions. He is considered a strong supporter of Sebastian Kurz's refugee policy.
Nehammer led the government response following the
2020 Vienna attack. He described the attacker as an "Islamist terrorist" and a sympathiser of the
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
, and admitted that intelligence services under his jurisdiction had failed to communicate information that could have prevented the attack. Nehammer's wife and children received police protection as a result of death threats received after the attack.
Chancellor of Austria
In October 2021,
Sebastian Kurz
Sebastian Kurz (; born 27 August 1986) is a former Austrian politician who twice served as chancellor of Austria, initially from December 2017 to May 2019 and then a second time from January 2020 to October 2021.
Kurz was born and raised in ...
resigned as chancellor in the wake of a corruption investigation and was succeeded by Foreign Minister
Alexander Schallenberg
Alexander Georg Nicolas Schallenberg (; born 20 June 1969) is an Austrian diplomat, jurist and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Chancellor Karl Nehammer since 2021, previously holding the office from ...
. Kurz remained as leader of the ÖVP until 2 December, when he announced his retirement from politics. Soon afterward, Schallenberg announced he would not seek the leadership and would resign as chancellor in favour of the new ÖVP leader once one had been elected. On 3 December, Nehammer was provisionally appointed as leader of the ÖVP by the federal party committee and proposed as
chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
. He was sworn in by President
Alexander Van der Bellen
Alexander Van der Bellen (; born 18 January 1944) is the current president of Austria. He previously served as a professor of economics at the University of Vienna, and after joining politics, as the spokesman of the Austrian Green Party.
...
on 6 December. In an extraordinary party convention on 14 May 2022, Nehammer was elected ÖVP chairman by 100% of the votes.
Under Nehammer’s leadership, Austria’s government implemented a package of measures worth six billion euros ($6.3 billion) in 2022 aimed at cushioning the blow to households of the rising cost of living.
On 8 December 2022 he was the architect of blocking Romania and Bulgaria access in Schengen area.
Other activities
*
, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2020)
Recognition
On February 22, 2022, Greek Minister of Migration & Asylum
Notis Mitarachi
Panagiotis A. Mitarachi ( el, Παναγιώτης (Νότης) Μηταράκης), known as Notis Mitarachi, is a Greek politician who served as Minister of Migration and Asylum from 2020 to 2023. He is a member of the Hellenic Parliament fo ...
br>
awardedKarl Nehammer th
Commendation Medal of First Class Migration Assistancein recognition of Nehammer’s contribution, as well as the
Austrian Government’s, in managing the
Evros’s migration crisis of March 2020.
Personal life
Nehammer is married to fellow ÖVP member
Katharina Nehammer. They have two children. The couple received criticism in early 2020 after Katharina was appointed spokeswoman for the
Ministry of Defence, with
Herbert Kickl
Herbert Kickl (born 19 October 1968) is an Austrian politician who has been leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) since June 2021. He previously served as Minister of the Interior from 2017 to 2019 and general-secretary of the FPÖ from 2 ...
accusing the government of putting interior and defence policy "in the hands of one family".
She began working in the private sector in
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...
in July 2020. Nehammer's father-in-law is former
ORF
ORF or Orf may refer to:
* Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF
* Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute
* One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel
* Open reading frame, a portion of the ...
presenter Peter Nidetzky.
See also
*
List of chancellors of Austria
The chancellor of Austria is the head of government of Austria, appointed by the president and viewed as the country's ''de facto'' chief executive. The chancellor chairs and leads the Cabinet, which also includes the vice-chancellor and the min ...
References
External links
Karl Nehammeron the
Austrian Parliament
The Austrian Parliament (german: Österreichisches Parlament) is the bicameral federal legislature of the Austrian Republic. It consists of two chambers – the National Council and the Federal Council. In specific cases, both houses convene ...
website
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nehammer, Karl
Living people
1972 births
Anti-Bulgarian sentiment
Anti-Romanian sentiment
Austrian eurosceptics
Austrian Roman Catholics
Austrian conspiracy theorists
Government ministers of Austria
Interior Ministers of Austria
Austrian People's Party politicians
Members of the National Council (Austria)
Politicians from Vienna
21st-century Austrian politicians
20th-century Austrian military personnel