Portrait Nehammer: Dutiful, loyal, in a position to compromise | EUROtoday

After 1,126 days, Nehammer himself drew the road. He was thought of a person who was eager on steadiness, able to compromise and pragmatic. For him it was about content material and customary objectives.

“Honesty is not sexy in politics,” says Karl Nehammer regretfully about his introduced farewell. But he’s sincere sufficient to say: This realpolitik perception didn’t come from him, however from certainly one of his advisors. With many due to the crew. Nehammer says thanks particularly for the “honor” of being Chancellor of the Republic of Austria.

In September 2024, the ÖVP achieved its worst election results of all time, minus eleven %, a landslide to 26 %. The ÖVP was solely the second strongest faction behind the partly right-wing extremist FPÖ.

Since then, Nehammer has solely been an govt within the Chancellery – albeit on behalf of the Austrian Federal President, who gave him, Charles the Honest, the duty of forming a authorities – and fairly intentionally not the precise election winner Herbert Kickl, the frontman of the FPÖ. Nehammer as celebration chief of the as soon as robust conservative Austrian individuals’s celebration ÖVP – after which additionally as ÖVP Chancellor.

For a very long time nobody believed he might do this, particularly not within the period of the sensible ÖVP star Sebastian Kurz. But after its deep fall, Nehammer rapidly turned the one one on whom the influential ÖVP state governors, i.e. the prime ministers of the ÖVP-governed federal states, might agree.

Nehammer ought to do it, the conscientious man, a loyal celebration soldier, an officer within the reserves, somebody who perseveres and pulls by means of if vital. Someone who allowed himself to be held accountable because the ÖVP’s wrecker after Kurz as a result of nobody else wished to go away his heat place as state governor. Above all, the one influential ÖVP state governor, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, mom of Lower Austria, helped push the trigger.

At the start, quiet within the third row

Lower Austria, the biggest federal state within the Alpine republic, can be Nehammer’s political dwelling – a steady foundation for an ÖVP celebration profession. Nehammer began fairly quietly within the third row: as head of the Lower Austrian ÖVP celebration academy, on the ÖVP staff’ affiliation as basic secretary and regional chief.

It was solely in 2017 that he was elected as a member of the Nationalrat, Austria’s parliament. Nehammer’s profession begin as a politician. He was ÖVP basic secretary below Kurz, however was by no means a part of Kurz’s inside circle of confidants, the “Buberl party”, as many mocked on the time.

“Not with Kickl”

After the Ibiza scandal flushed the FPÖ out of the Kurz authorities and the FPÖ agitator Herbert Kickl from the Interior Minister’s workplace, Nehammer turned Interior Minister within the second Kurz authorities. Even then, he needed to clear away the rubble that Interior Minister Kickl had left behind in workplace. Nehammer’s sincere dislike of the FPÖ populist additionally dates again to this time.

With this, too, Nehammer justified his maybe most necessary, however above all, most consequential election promise: “Not with Kickl”, no coalition with the novel populist, who, in keeping with Nehammer, is just robust in formulating issues, however not in fixing them.

The basically conservative Nehammer ruled with the Greens. A stroke of luck, it was initially mentioned. Nehammer, the one who strives for steadiness, the one who can compromise, the pragmatic one who cares about content material and customary objectives – that is the way it began. Rhetorically skilled within the armed forces, so: bumpy. Definitely the counter-proposal to Kurz – on the time it was additionally a praise from his personal celebration.

Migration: the most well-liked election marketing campaign subject

But over many months of disaster this wore off. The corona pandemic, the struggle in Ukraine, the power disaster, inflation – the ÖVP and the Greens finally turned estranged. What was more and more threatening for the ÖVP was the rise of the Corona denier Kickl and his FPÖ, which accelerated through the pandemic.

Migration turned the most well-liked election marketing campaign subject in Austria. Nehammer did not appear to be the fallacious particular person at Ballhausplatz both. The former Interior Minister was in a position to formulate this more and more sharply: a tough stance towards unlawful migration, extra Austrian tradition. The celebration applauded its prime candidate frenetically at the beginning of the election marketing campaign in the beginning of final 12 months.

Now it is others’ flip

There have been simply no noticeable will increase in share factors on the Sunday query – and in the long run no election victory. There have been occasional doubts about whether or not he was the proper particular person. Sometimes pushed by celebration nostalgia in reminiscence of the ÖVP flights of fancy with Kurz. But: No hazard for Nehammer, mentioned the political advisors in Vienna: “Nobody wants the job right now.”

Now others need to do it. After 1126 days, Nehammer’s time is over. But it’s he himself who attracts the road. And he quotes his father, who at all times advised younger Karl: “Don’t take yourself so seriously.”

Why did Nehammer throw down?

The query for the following few days stays: Why did he throw down? Nehammer, the conscientious one that at all times wished to be a “bulwark against the radicals”, as he emphasizes once more on the very finish. But which radicals does he imply? Those in different events, or these in their very own celebration, who need to think about a coalition with the Kickl-FPÖ.