Current Politics – The Commissioner is going around

Austria is a European Commission country. Hardly any other small Member State was able to send such political heavyweights with correspondingly important departments to Brussels as Austria. Now the successor for Johannes Hahn (ÖVP) must be found; the Chancellor Karl Nehammer responsible for this is under some pressure.

Moreover, the head of government has a real problem, in other words: a coalition partner. The Greens apparently no longer feel bound by the coalition agreement in the “Sideletter” with personnel agreements. The position of commissioner is intended as a bargaining chip to strengthen the position of the Greens in the field of personnel poker and thus get more appointments for the Greens. Moreover, the government candidate must pass through parliament and needs a majority in the main committee.

Woman as Commissioner for Innovation & Research
Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP), who has experience in government and the EU court and speaks fluent English and French, is considered the ideal candidate. Your European network is remarkable. Her refusal to lead the ÖVP list in the EU elections made her few friends in the chancellery. That shouldn’t be a reason to prevent it, but perhaps not a reason for Nehammer’s loyalty excesses either.

Especially because Nehammer has an ace up his sleeve: the elected but not yet appointed Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has apparently promised Austria a possible department that has a great appeal to a candidate: research and innovation.

Nehammer seems to have already found someone far away from party politics: Henrietta Egerth, director of the research funding company, could become commissioner. Thanks to her executive position, but also numerous mandates on advisory boards and supervisory boards, Egerth is considered the ideal expert choice. She knows Brussels from the late 1990s, when she was a representative of the employers’ association of the business association.

The Greens would find it difficult to reject her. Egerth’s co-director Karin Tausz of the research funding company was appointed by the Greens. Despite her lack of research expertise, we hear the collaboration between the two works surprisingly well.

Nehammer can still send a full-fledged political professional in the form of Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP), who is recommended for all departments dealing with finance and energy affairs. The support of the business association, which is not always easy for Nehammer, speaks in his favor.

Months of delay
If the Chancellor does not get through any of the three, he will face the Karas final. Othmar Karas, as a candidate of the ÖVP traffic light parties, could be one of the (former) parties that was brought to attention at the last minute, shortly before or after the elections for the National Council, after months of delay.

This is exactly what Nehammer wants to avoid at all costs and therefore wants to quickly find a compromise with the Greens. This could mean that Minister of Justice Alma Zadić (Greens) will go to the Court of Justice of the EU as a judge. She shouldn’t be happy about it.

The very last chapter of Black and Green has only just begun. A happy ending is virtually impossible.