Klaudia Tanner ( Wallner, born 2 May 1970) is an Austrian politician of the People's Party (ÖVP) who has been serving as Minister of Defense in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

of Chancellor

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 ...

since January 2020. From 2011 to 2020, she worked as the General Manager of Austria's political farmers' association.

Early life and education

Tanner was born in the small town of

Scheibbs Scheibbs () is a town in Austria in the Scheibbs district of Lower Austria. In 1886, it became the first town in Austria to have street lighting powered by electricity. Population Mayors *1950-1965: Anton Herok *1965-1983: Alois Derfler *1983 ...

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 ...

. Early in her career, she worked in the cabinet of

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 ...

Ernst Strasser from 2001 to 2003 and for IT company Kapsch BusinessCom, a subsidiary of

Kapsch The Kapsch Group, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, is an international corporation specializing in telematics, information technology and telecommunication. History and operations In September 1892, Johann Kapsch (1845–1921) founded a precisio ...

from 2003 to 2010.

Political career

Already in the negotiations on a coalition government under Chancellor

following the

2017 elections The following elections occurred in 2017. Africa *2017 Somali presidential election 8 February 2017 *2017 Gambian parliamentary election 6 April 2017 * 2017 Algerian legislative election 4 May 2017 *2017 Lesotho general election 3 June 2017 *20 ...

, Tanner was considered as potential cabinet minister. After the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in coun ...

, Tanner was appointed as Minister of Defense by Kurz in January 2020, making her the first woman to hold the position. Under Tanner's leadership, Austria mobilized its military reservists for the first time since World War Two, asking them to fight 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 identi ...

by helping with food supplies, medical support and police operations. Her ministry also ordered 18 Leonardo AW169M helicopters in a deal with Italy in September 2020, replacing its fleet of 50-year-old

Aérospatiale Alouette III The Aérospatiale Alouette III (, ''Lark''; company designations SA 316 and SA 319) is a single-engine, light utility helicopter developed by French aircraft company Sud Aviation. During its production life, it proved to be a relatively popular r ...

helicopters.Francois Murphy (21 September 2020)
Austria ordering 18 Leonardo helicopters in deal with Italy
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

''.

Personal life

Tanner lives in Gresten. She is married and has a daughter.

References

External links

Klaudia Tanner
on 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
Klaudia Tanner
on the Landtag of Lower Austria website
Klaudia Tanner
on the Federal Ministry of Defence website 1970 births Living people Female defence ministers People from Scheibbs District 21st-century Austrian women politicians 21st-century Austrian politicians Austrian Ministers of Defence Government ministers of Austria Austrian People's Party politicians Women government ministers of Austria {{Austria-politician-stub