From Kurz to Karl Nehammer

At their extraordinary federal party conference in Graz, the delegates of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) unanimously elected Karl Nehammer as their new chairman. With the record result, the 524 eligible voters sent the signal of unity demanded by the leadership. The new “helmsman” needs a tailwind in stormy times, speakers announced imploringly – and thus also expressed the nervous mood in advance.

The strongest governing party is in a difficult phase after years of soaring under Sebastian Kurz. According to polls, a third of the 37.5 percent of the votes it received in the 2019 National Council elections fell away, and in new elections the Social Democrats would probably be the strongest party at the moment.

need for security

The problems of the conservatives are only partly of their own making. The multiple crises of recent years, from Corona to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have unsettled Austrians and weakened trust in the government. The political and economic consequences that are slowly but surely becoming noticeable, including high inflation, are likely to intensify this effect.

Chancellor Nehammer, who has been in office since December, is trying to position himself and the Green coalition partner as guarantors of stability. “Security is the major issue of our time,” announced the former professional soldier in his keynote speech at the party congress. He emphasized the importance of stable food and energy supplies, national defense and the role of neutral Austria as a neutral mediator on the world stage. The government has invested billions in this and will increase its commitment, he promised.

In the last few weeks, Nehammer has been able to show that words are followed by deeds by relieving households of the increased energy costs and a long-awaited care reform. At times he also seemed hectic: he thought aloud about one at the beginning of May “Profit skimming” at partially state-owned corporations who benefited from high energy prices, for example – and thus triggered billions in losses on the stock exchange. He also fired up with an emotional press conference an affair about his bodyguardswho caused an accident while drunk. Also controversial was Nehammer’s decision to travel to Vladimir Putin after his visit to Ukraine – as the only European head of government since the invasion.

Persistent pressure

However, the ÖVP remains under political pressure primarily because of the unclear legacy of the Kurz era. He had ended two coalitions prematurely before resigning in October due to the affairs surrounding chats, reporting influenced by government advertisements and job swaps. After taking over the chancellorship, Nehammer continued with a largely identical government team and only emancipated himself extremely cautiously.

Since then, the opposition has been creating a constant flow of negative headlines with a new parliamentary committee of inquiry and has made no secret of its goal of forcing the conservative-Green coalition to resign. The criticism of alleged scandals sometimes seems a bit exaggerated and hypocritical, but ÖVP representatives, for example in Vorarlbergalso regularly provide new food with an extremely dubious behavior.

The conservatives are still unable to find a differentiated approach to dealing with their own weaknesses, which in many places include the too close amalgamation of party, state structures and business interests. Instead, they uncritically see themselves as victims of political attacks, including by an allegedly hostile judiciary. “We will not be misled by false rumours, anonymous ads or accusations in our work,” said the ÖVP General Secretary Laura Sachslehner at the party conference to thunderous applause in the hall.

The long shadow of Kurz

The lack of confrontation with the excesses of the Kurz era makes dealing with him a source of constant unrest. At the same time, the former chancellor remains extremely popular: in the Helmut List Hall in Graz, Kurz acts like a magnet at the beginning of the party conference, automatically attracting attention. Clusters of cameramen and fans form around him, waiting for selfies.

While Kurz enjoys bathing in the crowd, Nehammer doesn’t like the affectionate cordiality. He moves through the crowd like an express train, shakes hands jauntily, pats on the shoulders and greets one well-wisher after the other with a mechanical “hello, servus, nice, are you there”. Attempts by some party activists to “spontaneously” burst into applause came to nothing.

At the party conference, the organizers therefore have to do a lot to prevent the fallen political star Kurz from outshining the new party chairman. In the days before there were also discords: Kurz was suddenly strongly present again with long interviews in the tabloids, which not everyone in the ÖVP appreciated, although he assured to have withdrawn from politics “forever”..

Since Nehammer was also taken by surprise on Monday by the resignation of a minister considered to be a brief confidante and forced to hastily reshuffle the government, speculation about disruptive maneuvers arose. The fact that the former chancellor’s farewell speech, which had initially been announced, was briefly reduced to a moderated interview, in which he also had to share the stage with Wolfgang Bowl, can at least be seen as a precautionary measure.

Multifaceted People’s Party

The strong contrast between the political personalities of Kurz and Nehammer has ambivalent consequences. Nehammer lacks the charisma of his predecessor, but with his serious, binding manner he ensured calm in the party and coalition after Kurz’s disruptive style. His speech at the party conference stands out pleasantly from the empty phrases of his predecessor. But he hardly triggers a storm of enthusiasm.

While Kurz was running a permanent election campaign, Nehammer found it difficult to escalate. So he keeps getting bogged down in trying to list what the ÖVP stands for – liberalism and the aid package for the economy worth billions, structural maintenance in rural areas as well as the transformation towards climate neutrality, help for Ukrainian refugees and toughness against illegal migration. He has a thoroughly likeable sense of self-mockery: “I thank you for your receptivity,” he said with a smile at the end of his much too long speech, “but we have to deal with an enormous variety of topics.”

In doing so, he is precisely addressing the great strengths and weaknesses of the governing party ÖVP, which holds the scepter in most of Austria’s municipalities and whose leadership must take into account the interests of six powerful provincial governors as well as those of their heterogeneous “federations”. They ensure that the party, with its 600,000 members, covers a broad social spectrum, but at the same time it often remains unclear what it stands for. The radiance of Kurz made up for this blurriness for a short time – at the price of an often oversized gap between claim and reality. With Nehammer, the ÖVP again has a party leader who is more in line with its essence. The price for this is probably the renunciation of renewal.