The leadership of Austria's ruling conservatives on Friday picked interior minister Karl Nehammer as the party's next leader and the country's next chancellor, he said in a statement to the media.
Mr Nehammer, a 49-year-old former soldier, has been the enforcer of outgoing party leader Sebastian Kurz's hard line on immigration. Mr Kurz said on Thursday he was quitting politics, prompting his ally, chancellor Alexander Schallenberg, to say he too would step down.
Mr Nehammer said on Friday he had chosen party official Magnus Brunner to be the next finance minister.
Mr Brunner, a junior minister in the environment ministry, will succeed Gernot Bluemel, who said on Thursday he would resign after Mr Kurz quit as party leader.
Mr Schallenberg will return to his old job of foreign minister, Nehammer told a news conference. – Reuters