VIENNA, Dec 6 Reuters - Austria's third conservative chancellor in two months, Karl Nehammer, takes office on Monday trying to bring the coalition government out of months of scandal-tainted turmoil and to guide the country out of its current coronaviruses lockdown.
Nehammer, 49, is due to be sworn in by President Alexander Van der Bellen at 1 p.m. 1200 GMT As interior minister since last year, he was the enforcer of former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's hard line on immigration. He will be the first head of government of the post-Kurz era.
Short, 35, stunned much of the country by announcing on Thursday that he was quitting as leader of the People's Party OVP and leaving politics, saying he had lost interest since the birth of his son last month. The party picked Nehammer to be its leader on Friday.
Kurz left the job as chancellor in October at the behest of his coalition partner, the left-wing Greens because he was placed under a criminal investigation on suspicion of corruption offences. Kurz's supporters had hoped that he would quickly clear his name and return as chancellor. He denies all wrongdoing.
Prosecutors suspect that Kurz's public funds were used to secretly commission manipulated polling that was published in a newspaper with the intent to help him gain power in 2017, the year in which he became OVP leader and then chancellor, forming a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party.
Nehammer takes over a party in turmoil that has been largely built around Kurz since 2017.
Nehammer said on Friday that he plans to keep the law- and order agenda that was central to Kurz's appeal but also a point of friction with the Greens. He said that the coronaviruses will be his top priority as Austria tries to keep infections falling while coming out of lockdown next week.
Since Kurz was put under investigation, he must repair the OVP's damaged image as it lost what most polls showed to be a lead of at least 10 percentage points over its nearest rival, the Social Democrats.
Neither the OVP nor the Greens say they want a snap election for now, but most analysts think the coalition won't last until the end of the 2023 parliament. In newspaper interviews, Greens leader Werner Kogler did not rule out a snap election next year.