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Karl Nehammer now holds the office of Austrian Federal Chancellor as well as that of party leader of the ÖVP
Photo: IMAGO/photonews.at/Georges Schneider / IMAGO/photonews.at
The Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer was elected the new chairman of his conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) with a 100 percent result.
At an extraordinary federal party conference in Graz on Saturday, all 524 delegate votes went to the 49-year-old.
Nehammer accepted the election “with pride and gratitude”.
The ÖVP has governed in an alliance with the Greens since the beginning of 2020.
The coalition is considered stable.
Nehammer has been Chancellor of Austria since December after his predecessor Alexander Schallenberg resigned after just two months.
Nehammer initially took over the chairmanship of the ÖVP on an interim basis, but now he is also the official party leader.
Under Schallenberg and his predecessor Sebastian Kurz, Nehammer had been Minister of the Interior.
Kurz resigned as Chancellor in October 2021 after investigations into suspected corruption began.
In December he announced his complete retirement from politics, after which Schallenberg resigned.
Kurz now works for US investor and billionaire Peter Thiel, who is close to former US President Donald Trump.
For new ÖVP chairmen, good results in their first election are not uncommon.
Kurz was elected party leader in 2017 with 98.7 percent.
The best result so far was Kurz's predecessor Reinhold Mitterlehner in 2014 with 99.1 percent.
Nehammer was also in the international headlines recently because of his surprise visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The meeting went without a concrete result.
jso/dpa/AFP