Austrian President to Name Bierlein First Female Chancellor

(Bloomberg) -- Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen asked Constitutional Court President Brigitte Bierlein to form an interim government and he’ll swear her in as Austria’s first female chancellor in a few days.

Van der Bellen picked Bierlein after talks with all parliamentary parties in the last few days to make sure she doesn’t face a vote of no-confidence like ousted Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Bierlein is set to govern until a new government is formed after early elections this fall, Van der Bellen said at a news conference in Vienna.

“I will propose to the president a cabinet that has the expertise and the political sensitivity to govern the country in the coming months,” Bierlein said.

Austria was thrown into an unprecedented crisis two weeks ago, when a lurid video showed the nationalist vice chancellor promising government contracts in return for campaign funding from a purported niece of a Russian oligarch. The scandal toppled Kurz’s government and eventually himself.

Bierlein, who will turn 70 on June 25, said she will name retired top judge Clemens Jabloner vice chancellor and justice minister, and Alexander Schallenberg, a senior civil servant, foreign minister.

To contact the reporter on this story: Boris Groendahl in Vienna at bgroendahl@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten

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